UNESCO has declared reggae, the Jamaican music that spread across the world with its calls for social justice, peace and love, to be a global treasure that must be safe-guarded. Born in the poor neighbourhoods of Kingston in the 1960s, reggae reflected hard times and struggle but could also be joyous dance music with its distinctive off-beat.

Its most famous songwriter and performer, the late Bob Marley, became a global superstar with hits like “No Woman, No Cry” and “Get Up, Stand Up”. Other notables include Jimmy Cliff and Toots and the Maytalls. Artists such as the Clash incorporated its chunky beat and its politics into their own music, bringing it to a wider audience. It caught on from Britain to Brazil and Africa.

“Its contribution to international discourse on issues of injustice, resistance, love and humanity underscores the dynamics of the element as being at once cerebral, socio-political, sensual and spiritual,” UNESCO said in a statement. The Paris-based UNESCO, the cultural agency of the United Nations, made its ruling at a meeting this week.(Reuters)…[+]

The Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) has embarked on an exercise to remove from the voters’ list the names of persons who have died since 1998. Director of Elections Glasspole Brown says the exercise aims to delete the names of in excess of 260,000 deceased electors.

Brown was speaking at a Jamaica Information Service Think Tank at the agency’s head office in St Andrew on November 28, where representatives of the Electoral Commission made the announcement. He said that the exercise comes against the background of concerns raised regarding the number of deceased electors’ names that are removed from the list each year. He disclosed that the EOJ has deleted an average of under 5,000 names annually since continuous registration commenced in 1997.

“Hence, we anticipated that the list would have accumulated a [significant] number of deceased electors over the 20-year period. [So] there is now a need to refresh the list,” the director of elections added.(Jamaica Gleaner)…[+]

Port of Spain, Trinidad. In Mariette Warrington v Dominica Broadcasting Corporation, the

Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) today decided that Ms. Warrington, a former General Manager of the Dominica Broadcasting Corporation (DBC), should be paid the equivalent of six months’ salary, gratuity and holiday pay totalling EC$52,3000 as damages. DBC had paid her one month’s salary and an honorarium when they terminated her, and the High Court and the Court of Appeal had upheld these payments. At the CCJ, she had requested payment of her salary for the remaining years of her contract.

However, the CCJ found she had not proved that loss and decided that “Ms. Warrington would have been entitled to the six months’ salary in lieu of notice and this amount is to be regarded in law as agreed liquidated damages”. At the root of this dispute was whether Ms Warrington’s appointment was valid. She had served the organisation under two consecutive employment contracts as the General Manager which ended in 2008. Before the end of the last contract she wrote a letter requesting further employment with the Corporation as General Manager “under similar terms and conditions” with an increased salary and protection against arbitrary termination. DBC never responded to this request. At a board meeting, some months before the contract ended, a decision was taken unanimously to re-appoint her but this decision was never communicated to Ms. Warrington, although she later learned of it.

Later the board decided to advertise the position of General Manager and Ms. Warrington applied for the position. She was the only applicant; however, the Corporation did not respond to her application. After the contract had ended Ms. Warrington was kept performing as General Manager, and early in the new period, she wrote to the Chairman of the board to inquire about her employment status but again received no answer. After some fifteen months performing as General Manager, in March 2010, the employee received a letter informing her that she was on a month to month contract and was terminated in the subsequent month…[+]