Lowrie-Chin Post

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

PICS - American Airlines crash landed at Norman Manley Intl Airport

Kirk Wright's AP report

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — An American Airlines flight carrying 154 people skidded across a Jamaican runway in heavy rain, bouncing across the tarmac and injuring more than 40 people before it stopped just short of the Caribbean Sea, officials and witnesses said.

Panicked passengers screamed and baggage burst from overhead bins as Flight 331 from Miami careened down the runway in the capital, Kingston, on Tuesday night, one passenger said.The impact cracked open the fuselage, crushed the left landing gear and separated both engines from the Boeing 737-800, airline spokesman Tim Smith said. Crews evacuated dazed and bloodied passengers onto a beach from a cabin that smelled of smoke and jet fuel, passengers said. Rain poured through the plane's broken roof, one said.

Some 44 people were taken to hospitals with broken bones and back pains and four were seriously hurt, airport and Jamaican government officials said. American Airlines said two people were admitted to the hospital and nobody suffered life-threatening injuries.The plane skidded across a causeway road before coming to a halt on a grassy embankment. Two gaping cracks marked the fuselage, and the jet's mangled nose section tilted downward just short of the ocean.

Heavy turbulence on the way to Jamaica had forced the crew to halt the beverage service three times before giving up, Pilar Abaurrea of Keene, New Hampshire, told The Associated Press by phone. The pilot warned of more turbulence just before landing but said it likely wouldn't be much worse, she said."All of a sudden, when it hit the ground, the plane was kind of bouncing. Someone said the plane was skidding and there was panic," she said.U.S. investigators will analyze whether the plane should have been landing in such bad weather, Smith said, adding that other planes had landed safely in the heavy rain.Passenger Natalie Morales Hendricks told NBC's "Today" that the plane began to skid upon landing and "before I knew it, everything was black and we were crashing."

"Everybody's overhead baggage started to fall. Literally, it was like being in a car accident. People were screaming, I was screaming," she said."There was smoke and debris everywhere," after the plane halted, she said. "It was a mess. Everybody could smell jet fuel."

Passenger Robert Mais told The Gleaner newspaper of Jamaica that he had heard the engine's reverse throttle but that the plane didn't seem to slow as it skittered down the runway.The plane stopped about 10 to 15 feet (3 to 5 meters) from the Caribbean and passengers walked along the beach to be picked up by a bus, Mais said. Rain came through the roof of the darkened jet and baggage from the overhead compartments was strewn about the cabin, he said.

The plane originated at Reagan National Airport in Washington and took off from Miami International Airport at 8:52 p.m. and arrived in Kingston at 10:22 p.m. It was carrying 148 passengers and a crew of six, American said. The majority of those aboard were Jamaicans coming home for Christmas, Jamaican Information Minister Daryl Vaz said.Smith said there were two "significant" cracks in the fuselage, and the engines are designed to separate from the wings during an accident as a safety measure.

A team of six investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board was traveling to Jamaica from Washington on Wednesday morning to assist a probe led by the island's government, agency spokesman Keith Holloway said. The airport reopened early Wednesday after officials had delayed flights because of concerns that the plane's tail might be hindering visibility.

Four hundred passengers waited for their flights to be cleared for takeoff, Security Minister Dwight Nelson told Radio Jamaica.

Heavy rains that have pelted Jamaica's eastern region for four days are expected to dissipate by Thursday. Authorities said the rains washed away a 7-year-old girl on Tuesday and led to a bus crash in which two people died.

Associated Press writers Danica Coto, Ben Fox and Mike Melia in San Juan, Puerto Rico; Howard Campbell in Kingston, Jamaica; Carol Druga in Atlanta, Georgia; and Sofia Mannos in Washington contributed to this report.
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All Survived Crash at Norman Manley Airport - Washington Post report

http://mobile.washingtonpost.com/c.jsp?item=http%3a%2f%2fwww.washingtonpost.com%2fwp-syndication%2farticle%2f2009%2f12%2f23%2fAR2009122300146_mobile.xml&cid=578815&spf=1
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Monday, December 21, 2009

Timely Prayer!

Seventeenth century prayer from a nun - Courtesy of Daniel-Gérard Rouzier - Food for the Poor, Haiti .

Lord, thou knowest better than I know myself that I am growing older and will someday be old.
Keep me from the fatal habit of thinking I must say something on every subject and on every occasion.
Release me from craving to straighten out everybody's affairs.
Make me thoughtful but not moody, helpful but not bossy.
With my vast store of wisdom, it seems a pity not to use it all, but thou knowest, Lord, that I want a few friends in the end.

Keep my mind free from the recital of endless details; give me wings to get to the point.
Seal my lips on my aches and pains.
They are increasing, and love of rehearsing them is becoming sweeter as the years go by.
I dare not ask for grace enough to enjoy the tales of others' pains, but help me to endure them with patience.

I dare not ask for improved memory, but for a growing humility and a lessening cocksureness when my memory seems to clash with the memories of others.
Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally I may be mistaken.

Keep me reasonably sweet;
I do not want to be a saint – some of them are so hard to live with – but a sour old person is one of the crowning works of the devil.
Give me the ability to see good things in unexpected places and talents in unexpected people.
And give me, O Lord, the grace to tell them so.
Amen

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Beverley East’s big idea

Beverley East with her ‘biggest achievement’, son Diag Deje Davenport.

from Jean Lowrie-Chin's Observer column | 21 Dec 09

(click on title for full column)

“It was slow going at the beginning,” recalls Bev, “Until a friend suggested that I should write a book about graphology.” Thus, Beverley set herself to the task of producing “Finding Mr Write”, a four-year exercise which paid off handsomely. Random House accepted her manuscript, complete with a six-figure initial payout. “That put me on the map and changed my life,” said Bev.

After marrying an American, Bev moved to Washington DC where her only child, her cherished son Diag Deje Davenport, was born. She credits her former husband, a lawyer, for encouraging her to go into forensic document examination. Just before her book came out, Washington Post award-winning journalist, Patrice Gaines wrote a story on Bev’s work, and by coincidence (or ‘God-incidence’), a front page story got dropped and the story on Beverley East got top billing. “I got calls from so many people,” says Bev. “Even the White House called to ask me to analyse Monica Lewinsky’s handwriting!”

Beverley was contacted also by investigators to analyse the ransom note that had been found at the home of little beauty queen Jon Benet Ramsay on the night of her murder. Beverley did 26 speaking engagements on the subject. Her theory? “I believe the ransom note was dictated to the writer,” she says. “It did not appear genuine. It was too long and too detailed. There was no rhythm and lots of pauses.”

Strokes & Slants this year celebrated 20 eventful years in business. Beverley operates out of London, Washington DC and the Caribbean where she does a great deal of forensic work. In Jamaica, it is mostly Will & Testament and Land Transfer fraud. She is a one-woman business, sub-contracting when needed. “After 9/11 I had nine people working with me because death certificates from other states were being altered to say New York; people were trying to cash in on the special insurance that was being offered,” disclosed Bev. She was also a media consultant on the anthrax letters.

In interviews on ABC and MSNBC, seen on her website http://www.writeanalysis.com Beverley proves that she has mastered the science of graphology. Visit the site to learn how to analyse the handwriting in those romantic Christmas cards as you search for your ‘Mr/Ms Right’. Beverley East’s sparkling career grew from the courage of following up on her big idea. What is yours?

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Prof Chen's and Ambassador Hill's Jamaica-Copenhagen Letter

The authors: Anthony Hill is a retired Jamaican Ambassador.

A Anthony Chen is Nobel Laureate and Professor Emeritus, UWI.

Jamaica Observer | Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Science and its technology tools have made lifestyles generally the most comfortable since the dawn of contemporary history. Applied to energy transformation these technologies have been central to raising hundreds of millions out of poverty and improved living standards across the board.

Over the past 20 years science now demonstrates with a very high degree of confidence that modern man's lifestyles are now a decisive factor altering the naturally equilibrating forces in the earth's system. The greenhouse gases, emitted by an excess of carbon dioxide (CO2) mainly, now saturate the atmosphere and are bringing the system to a major tipping point.

Make no bones about it: the greenhouse gases emitted by releasing energy from the fossil fuels of oil and gas, the pressure on the declining soil and water resources, the demand for food, minerals and fossil fuels, the pollution of the atmosphere are well beyond the equilibrium-carrying capacity of the earth. In Jamaica we face a myriad of threats ranging from sea level rise and droughts (which we are now experiencing) to increased incidence of diseases (See, for example, http://www.america.gov/publications/ejournalusa.html#0909). These threats will increase in proportion to the increase in global warming which in turn depends on the increase in quantity of greenhouse gases emitted by man-made activity. The greatest harm will come to the poor and underprivileged who are less able to adapt to these threats. Globally, the greatest threat is the irreversible melting of the polar ice caps and Greenland due to what is termed "a positive feedback" where the melting feeds on itself.

It is to reduce these threats that the world began meeting in Copenhagen last week. The main areas for discussion include:

* Targets to curb greenhouse gas emissions, in particular by developed countries

* Financial support for mitigation of, and adaptation to, climate change in developing countries

* A carbon-trading scheme aimed at ending the destruction of the world's forests (a sink for CO2) by 2030.

At the time of writing, the governments of the major greenhouse gas emitters meeting in Copenhagen are still not ready to take bold action, despite the high confidence of the scientific findings. It is clear that there will be no agreement of a legally binding nature, but a political best endeavour declaration. The Kyoto Protocol and its commitments will suffice, up to 2012.

The mature course of action for those countries faced with the heavy burden of adaptation to the hazards, with and without agreement in Copenhagen, is the sensible disposition of policy to our island circumstances. It will be necessary to devise an all-encompassing set of programmes, which lay the bases for individual, community and national activities. We consider this using the terminology widely adopted, namely the "low-carbon economy".

The transition to a low-carbon economy will not be easy. In the short and medium term the volume of greenhouse gases must increase in Jamaica, and perhaps rapidly so if the economy is to move to a new self-sustaining phase to meet its growing demand for goods and services.

This reliance on and increased use of fossil fuel energy sources make sense only in the context of built-in measures to use them efficiently and simultaneously increasing the share of renewable energy sources and technologies across all sectors of the society.

This requires phasing out as rapidly as possible several of the more technologically inefficient heavy fuel oil power generating plants with high heat rates and considerable polluting emissions of CO2. The replacement by technically and economically feasible renewable energy sources, such as wind and hydro power, will set Jamaica on track to significantly reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

The new breed of wind turbines reaching to higher heights and with increased energy output is a proven technology. This must now be applied to the Wigton Wind Farm if it is to overcome its early disappointment, as well as to other suitable wind sites. Further, legislation must be put in place for more equitable power purchase agreement.

The base year for the measurement of greenhouse gas emissions must be set, say 2010, overall and by sector. The basis for this exercise is to be found in Jamaica's "Final Report - Jamaica's Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory, which "presents Jamaica's greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory of anthropogenic emissions and removals of greenhouse gases (GHGs) not controlled by the Montreal Protocol.

This inventory should be refined and constitute an integral part of the National Development Plan Vision 2030. Targets set leading up to 2030 and 2050 will be an important measure for the efficient use of energy in producing goods and services and the rollout of renewable energy technologies.

The sectors in which the low-carbon strategy will make the most impact includes power generation across the national grid and its consumption by major industrial users, water utilities, communications and transportation firms, including airlines and ships within territorial space, distribution outlets, buildings, including hotels, hospitals and prisons and individual lifestyles.

The financial services sector, and importantly insurance must be a major and integral participant, underwriting, asset management and claims management of both private assets, and increasingly "public goods".

Major government-initiated or supported "investments", or both, through incentive measures and tax breaks, without integrating the low-carbon dynamic, is self-defeating and ultimately cannot be considered "visionary". Climate change with its immense uncertainties and risks "threaten human health, disrupt economic activity, damage natural ecosystems irreversibly, and even (in worst-case scenarios) lead to mass migration, food shortage, and other global humanitarian crises".

The governance structures as presently functioning, while admirably underpinning democratic pluralism, have shown themselves less than optimum to the task of delivering balanced growth, development and social harmony.

The challenges and risks posed by climate change offer the country a real opportunity to decentralise and devolve power from central government, redistribute bureaucratic expertise to local governments and communities and importantly to deconcentrate private capital.

The call for a "Jamaica, the place of choice to live, work, raise families and do business" is possible only when there is a restored sense of solidarity and self-governing institutions at the local and community levels where climate change strikes first and hardest.

The ongoing turmoil of economic uncertainty notwithstanding, the Jamaican society stands to lose much, much more should it fail to be guided by the basic principle of survival, namely precaution.

Consider a Jamaica in 2050, without the results of fundamental changes to present governance institutions, principles, policies, programmes and lifestyles: less arable land with eroded coastal zones and denuded hillsides, less clean air with more pollution, less potable water with more floods and waste, a less healthy population, less to share but more, many more people angling to get their share.

Jimmy Cliff 's The Harder they come, the Harder they Fall will be ringing in our ears.