Dear Editor,
One of the youngest women to be elected to the Jamaican Parliament, Lisa Hanna, who emerged as winner of Miss World 1993, has now become Jamaica's worst performing Cabinet minister for 2012.
The country, and those who her portfolio empowers her to serve are disappointed with the former Opposition spokesperson on Information, Youth and Culture's performance.
In July of this year, several youth group leaders convened at the Gleaner Editors' Forum and gave Hanna a failing grade for her handling of the youth portfolio. Ryan Small, who works directly in the office of the minister, who is also the Chairman for the National Youth Council, made it clear that the minister failed to outline a clear vision for the youth of the country. Speaking during the forum, Small suggested that Hanna needed to articulate a very clear plan for the nation's youth population, and said it should be "designed" with input from all the various youth groups.
One of the main events under the youth portfolio is the celebration of Youth Month, which is held in November annually. What we saw this year was only the launch of Youth Month which took place at St William Grant Park in downtown Kingston on November 1. Youth groups confirmed with Perceptual Post that they were not consulted by the minister regarding any planned activities.
The Prime Minister's Youth Awards have been postponed until 2013.
Normally during Youth Month, all youth sectors (NSSC, NYC, JUTS, JYAN, et al) should have had elections and installed a new executive committees; only JUTS (Jamaica Union of Tertiary Student) had its election.
November 17 is celebrated as International Students' Day, whereby youth group leaders across the world should meet in their respective countries and tackle key issues affecting them. None of this took place, according to public knowledge, and even if it did, who represented the different youth sectors?
The Member of Parliament (MP) for South East St Ann has not lived up to some of the expectations and still does not seem to have a clearly defined policy direction to help foster the growth and development of the nation's young people, hence the reason she did not give a youth message and the reason she is looking to Cuba for help.
The year 2012 should have been celebrated as Jamaica50 or Golden Jubilee; the celebration was met with controversies (song, flag fiasco, funding) and clashes between Hanna and Opposition spokesman on Youth and Culture, Olivia Grange. The celebration was not what it could have been and should have been. Jamaica50 should not have been just an August 6 (Independence Day) celebration but rather a year-long celebration. One woman told Perceptual Post that "there was no Jamaica50 celebration, but [rather] a Kingston50 celebration."
Children in State care in Jamaica are dying; some are committing suicide, and most if not all the facilities are in deplorable condition.
Minister Hanna had worked in conjunction with UNICEF to spearhead the Jamaican candlelight vigils to launch the International Convention on the Rights of the Child. Knowing Hanna's history makes her performance even more disappointing. Standing in the shoes of Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller (who was quick to condemn the CT shooting), Hanna remained silent for too long on the issues of children in adult lock-ups and the treatment of children in State care and the alleged suicide of Vanessa Wint, who was housed at the Horizon Adult Remand Centre in Kingston. Vanessa allegedly committed suicide on the night of November 21 while in lock-up.
When she responded, all she could say is that she has no jurisdiction over the children in State care and now there seems to be an issue with the Child Development Agency under Hanna's portfolio, hence a request has been made that the agency be placed under the portfolio of the Minister of Local Government Noel Arscott.
Before entering representational politics, the former External Affairs Chairperson for the Guild of Students at the University of the West Indies, trained over 2000 Jamaican children in character development through the Lisa Hanna Workshops and taught women in the skills training programmes in Jones Town, Kingston.
Close to 70 per cent of Jamaica's youth are unskilled and approximately 55 per cent of them leave school without passing a single subject, while 75 per cent of crimes recorded across the island are committed by persons under the age of 30. In speaking with the Cuban ambassador to Jamaica, Yuri Gala Lopez, the former communications consultant declared her commitment to finding solutions to this problem.
"There is much work to be done to reverse the statistics and to improve the life chances of Jamaica's youth. My top priority is finding and providing opportunities for youth to succeed, particularly youth at risk," said Hanna then.
What has been done in this regard? Perceptual Post spoke with Floyd Green, President of G2K, The Youth Affiliated Arm of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) who said "youth [still] have the most problems in terms of our unemployment rate which is one in every three -- 31% compared to the country's unemployment rate which is about 12 per cent."
The culture portfolio of the minister has left 2012 Festival Song competition winner Abby-Gaye Dallas deprived. After winning the competition on July 7, Abby was told that there was no money in the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) to pay her. Dallas was given the keys to a brand new 2012 Nissan Versa motor car on the night of winning the competition, but ironically, it was only for show. After six months of waiting, she is yet to receive her prizes.
Minister Hanna, we need your attention.
JJ Minto
VP Academic Affairs 2012-2013
United Student Movement (USM)
Northern Caribbean University
Poor performance, Minister Hanna
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One of the youngest women to be elected to the Jamaican Parliament, Lisa Hanna, who emerged as winner of Miss World 1993, has now become Jamaica's worst performing Cabinet minister for 2012.
The country, and those who her portfolio empowers her to serve are disappointed with the former Opposition spokesperson on Information, Youth and Culture's performance.
In July of this year, several youth group leaders convened at the Gleaner Editors' Forum and gave Hanna a failing grade for her handling of the youth portfolio. Ryan Small, who works directly in the office of the minister, who is also the Chairman for the National Youth Council, made it clear that the minister failed to outline a clear vision for the youth of the country. Speaking during the forum, Small suggested that Hanna needed to articulate a very clear plan for the nation's youth population, and said it should be "designed" with input from all the various youth groups.
One of the main events under the youth portfolio is the celebration of Youth Month, which is held in November annually. What we saw this year was only the launch of Youth Month which took place at St William Grant Park in downtown Kingston on November 1. Youth groups confirmed with Perceptual Post that they were not consulted by the minister regarding any planned activities.
The Prime Minister's Youth Awards have been postponed until 2013.
Normally during Youth Month, all youth sectors (NSSC, NYC, JUTS, JYAN, et al) should have had elections and installed a new executive committees; only JUTS (Jamaica Union of Tertiary Student) had its election.
November 17 is celebrated as International Students' Day, whereby youth group leaders across the world should meet in their respective countries and tackle key issues affecting them. None of this took place, according to public knowledge, and even if it did, who represented the different youth sectors?
The Member of Parliament (MP) for South East St Ann has not lived up to some of the expectations and still does not seem to have a clearly defined policy direction to help foster the growth and development of the nation's young people, hence the reason she did not give a youth message and the reason she is looking to Cuba for help.
The year 2012 should have been celebrated as Jamaica50 or Golden Jubilee; the celebration was met with controversies (song, flag fiasco, funding) and clashes between Hanna and Opposition spokesman on Youth and Culture, Olivia Grange. The celebration was not what it could have been and should have been. Jamaica50 should not have been just an August 6 (Independence Day) celebration but rather a year-long celebration. One woman told Perceptual Post that "there was no Jamaica50 celebration, but [rather] a Kingston50 celebration."
Children in State care in Jamaica are dying; some are committing suicide, and most if not all the facilities are in deplorable condition.
Minister Hanna had worked in conjunction with UNICEF to spearhead the Jamaican candlelight vigils to launch the International Convention on the Rights of the Child. Knowing Hanna's history makes her performance even more disappointing. Standing in the shoes of Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller (who was quick to condemn the CT shooting), Hanna remained silent for too long on the issues of children in adult lock-ups and the treatment of children in State care and the alleged suicide of Vanessa Wint, who was housed at the Horizon Adult Remand Centre in Kingston. Vanessa allegedly committed suicide on the night of November 21 while in lock-up.
When she responded, all she could say is that she has no jurisdiction over the children in State care and now there seems to be an issue with the Child Development Agency under Hanna's portfolio, hence a request has been made that the agency be placed under the portfolio of the Minister of Local Government Noel Arscott.
Before entering representational politics, the former External Affairs Chairperson for the Guild of Students at the University of the West Indies, trained over 2000 Jamaican children in character development through the Lisa Hanna Workshops and taught women in the skills training programmes in Jones Town, Kingston.
Close to 70 per cent of Jamaica's youth are unskilled and approximately 55 per cent of them leave school without passing a single subject, while 75 per cent of crimes recorded across the island are committed by persons under the age of 30. In speaking with the Cuban ambassador to Jamaica, Yuri Gala Lopez, the former communications consultant declared her commitment to finding solutions to this problem.
"There is much work to be done to reverse the statistics and to improve the life chances of Jamaica's youth. My top priority is finding and providing opportunities for youth to succeed, particularly youth at risk," said Hanna then.
What has been done in this regard? Perceptual Post spoke with Floyd Green, President of G2K, The Youth Affiliated Arm of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) who said "youth [still] have the most problems in terms of our unemployment rate which is one in every three -- 31% compared to the country's unemployment rate which is about 12 per cent."
The culture portfolio of the minister has left 2012 Festival Song competition winner Abby-Gaye Dallas deprived. After winning the competition on July 7, Abby was told that there was no money in the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) to pay her. Dallas was given the keys to a brand new 2012 Nissan Versa motor car on the night of winning the competition, but ironically, it was only for show. After six months of waiting, she is yet to receive her prizes.
Minister Hanna, we need your attention.
JJ Minto
VP Academic Affairs 2012-2013
United Student Movement (USM)
Northern Caribbean University
Poor performance, Minister Hanna
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