THE GLEANER, MONDAY, MARCH 7, 2022 | www.jamaica-gleaner.com | NEWS A2 RUSH CONTINUED FROM A1 his tenure. But theerosionof that foundationbecame evident in the September 2020 general election, when Phillips’victorywas buffered by fewer than 1,000 votes, as he led the PNP to a crushing 14-49 defeat. The former PNPpresident polled927more votes than the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) JodianMyrie, who secured 4,002. The figure represented a significant drop inPhillips’marginof victorywhen compared to the February 2016general electionwhen he polled 7,017 to the 4,774 secured by the JLP’s Marie Prince. In the prior general election inDecember 2011, Phillips had defeated Prince by 2,925 votes, polling 6,941 to her 4,016. The waning support has not been lost on Golding, who admitted that it may be an indication of people wanting to see new energy. “That seat is a seat we have won many times for many years. So obviously, we have bedrock support. Sometimeswhenyou’re in a seat, people want to see new energy and new effort,”he told The Gleaner. “I think it’s time for theorganisationon the ground to do the work as required to show the people that we’re still the best choice for them.” The JLP has had St Andrew East Central in its cross hairs since 2016 though Prince had captured theCassia Parkdivision for the party from as early as August 8, 2013, in a by-election. Gleaner sources within the governing partyhave indicated thatMyriewill not return as the standard-bearer for the JLP. “They want somebody with a national profile to pull out retirees and the middle class. PNP already have their base, although the margin has been going down, and Labourites have Labourite base. Quite a few people who are already members of the executive want it, but the party wants somebody with a Nigel [Clarke] profile to show that we mean business,” one source said. A second source indicated that Myrie, the daughter of reggae star Buju Banton, does not have the resources to match businessmanDennisGordon, PNP councillor for theMaxfieldPark division, whohas been tapped to replace Phillips. “That is causing some problems in area council because they want Jodi to get the seat, but she’s not going to win if we keep her on,”the source said. Efforts by TheGleaner to reachMyrie and JLPChairmanRobertMontague for comment on thematter were unsuccessful. Meanwhile, Golding said that the work within the constituency is ongoing and that Gordon, the chairman of the party’s Region Three, hasbeenat the forefront toensure that the PNP is successful if an election is called. “I’mconfident thatwe can retain that seat,” said Golding. kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com Kimone Francis/ Senior Staff Reporter AHEAD OF the global celebrationof International Women’s Day on Tuesday, gender and development practitioner Judith Wedderburn has expressed disappointment with Jamaica’s women legislators, who she accuses of not doing enough to tackle fundamental disparities. Wedderburn has also argued that even with the rise of women in key leadership positions, genderbased and sexual violence, poverty, and low-income jobs are among the persistent challenges that undermine those gains. “I am very disappointed that we have so many more women in the House of Representatives and the Senate, and it’s like they don’t exist. What are the issues that they are following up on behalf of the women of Jamaica? I’mnot hearing it,”Wedderburn told TheGleaner in an interview on Sunday. Eighteen of the 63 members of parliament and eight of the 21 senators are women. The overall figure marks the first time in the history of the Jamaican Parliament that women represent more than 30 per cent of lawmakers. Wedderburn still believes that women remain silent on key issues. Legislators from the government caucusbore thebrunt of her criticism as she insisted that collectively, they havenot leveragedgreater voiceand power. “Onemust askwhat is happening inside of their party, especially the Government party, who has a majority of women.Why are they so silent? Soonecanassume that in that spaceof political leadership, women are not making any progress,” she said, noting that it is not only about numbers. “You could have 40 per cent women in Parliament or the Senate, [but] if those women are not stepping up to the plate and speaking out in defence of women and in support of women and the many inequalities they face, why are they there?” She said it raises the question of whether women in leadership facilitate other women. While acknowledging the recent passage of the sexual harassment bill, Wedderburn said that that achievement has come after more than two decades of advocacy. Government lawmakers Tova Hamilton, member of parliament for Trelawny Northern, and Senator Saphire Longmore declined comment when contacted on Sunday. Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Mark Golding told The Gleaner that Jamaica has made “significant progress”in seeingwomen emerge as leaders. He said this is evident even beyond the political arena, citing their rise in the judiciary and the public and private sectors. “Generally across the economy, we’ve seen women emerging in positions of influence and power, and that’s awonderful thing, but the truth of the matter is that there are still areas where women tend to be employed and at wages which are lower than the jobs that men tend to hold,”said Golding. He said in that instance, legislation may not be the solution. “It ismore aquestionof providing opportunities for women and encouraging women to develop the skills necessary for them to feel welcome in those areas of the economy where they may be Women lawmakers rapped for gender fight Beverley Anderson Duncan (left), former wife of late former prime minister Michael Manley, greets Glynn Manley, his widow, during a wreath-laying ceremony commemorating the 25th anniversary of Manley’s death. Some of his social and legislative reforms in the 1970s were credited for uplifting women. RUDOLPH BROWN/PHOTOGRAPHER Ainsworth Morris/Staff Reporter PANDEMIC-RELATED DEPRESSION, the deathof an infant son, job loss, and family feuds have rendered a couple homeless, forcing Anakay Thomas Peart and her husband, Parnel Peart, to pitch a tent along the shore of Bob Marley Beach in NineMiles, Bull Bay, where theynow live. Also living inside the tent is their threeyear-old daughter, Zemora Peart. Anakay is also in her third trimester of pregnancyand isdue togivebirthonMarch 20. They reportedly left her parents’ house in October 2021 because of a religious dispute. Anakay’s parents are said to be devout Rastafarians and the couple have chosen to become Christians and now attend church services. “The condition is stressing. It is stressing for me,”she said in a Gleaner interview. “Weareweownbigwomanandbigman. On Sunday, like demnuhwant we fi go no church…‘Why you going church?Who is this?Who is that? Bout unnua serve this and that’,”said the 32-year-oldwoman, whowill be giving birth for a fifth time. “Dem praise Selassie, but a Jesus we praise!” she added, referencing the late former emperor of Ethiopia. Anakay’s eldest son, who is now18 years of age, remained with her parent, and her second child lives with his paternal grandmother. Anakay, whodroppedout of high school when she got pregnant in grade nine at Yallahs High School, said accommodation with her parents had also become difficult whenher sister returned to the familyhome. The crisis facing the Pearts lays bare the starkness of Jamaican poverty even with data showing that the economy has rebounded fromthe coronavirus outbreak that guttedmore than 130,000 jobs at the heights of the pandemic’s displacement. Jamaica’s unemployment rate fell to 7.2 per cent according to October 2021 data by the Statistical Instituteof Jamaica.Youth unemployment declinedby9.3percentage points to 18.9 per cent relative to October 2020. And there was a larger decline in female youth unemployment down 12.3 percentage points to 21.6 per cent. Male youth unemployment stood at 16.6 per cent, a decline of 7.2 percentage points. But the gravity of poverty affecting the Pearts, in their beach tentwith the trappings of tarpaulin, tells a different story for many Jamaicans. Anakay said that when she met her husband in2015, shewent to livewithhim at ahome sharedwithhis family inTrelawny. However, after their infant son died in June 2020, things started going downhill for them. They moved in with her parents in St Thomas twomonths later. Parnel’s hopes of landing a job in Kingstonduring thepandemic have faded, revealing that he has onlymanaged to get temporary work and has complained of being underpaid by employers. He longs to return to his home in Trelawny, but he still wrestles with the hauntingmemoryof thedeathof his infant son, who was born on April 5, 2020. “Whenmi really look back on di picture, mi say mi baby dead inna di house and thing, and that’s a memory. ... Mi stress, mi frustrated, mi torment. Mi can’t function,” he said. Parnel, who saidhe is abaptisedChristian but still wears dreadlocks, disclosed that he is amechanic andautobody repairman. His last steady job, he said, was repairingToyota Voxy buses inTrelawny. But with his back against a wall, he is willing to take on just about any job. “Even if I get yard fi chop, I will chop it. It’s not all about the trade work right now… . Right now, we inna some situation where sometimes rain wet we up,”he said. Anakay, who used to work at a stall owned by her brother near the Harbour Viewroundabout, is eager for themto start a business at BobMarley Beach. They have already tried to cobble together a start-up, but that sputtered as many of the coconuts spoilt. Hermainconcernnow is putting inplace necessities for her newborn. “We nuh have no pram. We nuh have nothing. We nuh even have a proper bed to lie down on,”she said. Persons interested inassisting the couple may call themat (876)805-6874. Couple, 3-y-o live in tent on beach With another child due, cycle of poverty a crisis Janet Silvera/Senior Gleaner Writer WESTERN BUREAU: ONE OF Jamaica’s first black women to capitalise on the tourism industry, catering to the likes of Elizabeth Taylor, Lady Mountbatten, and Princess Margaret, has died. Dorothy Vendryes, nee Gourzong, whose 1950s beauty salons catered to the rich and famous, died on Saturday in Canada, where she resided inMississauga, Ontario, with her daughter. Vendryes’ former lawyer, Gordon Brown, confirmed her death. Trained by the world-famous Wilfred Academy in NewYork, Vendryes opened her first salon at the Casa Montego Hotel (now Fantasy Resort), duplicating her hairdressing parlour at the Montego Beach Hotel (then Sunset Lodge). During an interview with The Gleaner in 2017, Vendryes said in those days, she pushed the envelope, employing staff from the United States, France, the United Kingdom, and Canada, because her clientele were mainly wealthy visitors. “Not that local beauticians were not employed to my salon. In fact, they were my right hand,” she said. Vendryes, who was believed to be in her 90s, was married to physician and alternative medicine advocate Dr Anthony Vendryes, who predeceased her in May 2019. They had been married for 46 years. She operated salons at the exclusive Tryall Club, Royal Caribbean (now Sandals Royal), Half Moon, and Runaway Bay Hotel (now Jewel Runaway Bay). “I wasted no time at all. I had no fun, no parties. It was all work. Working from 6 a.m. to 1 a.m. daily even with 40 people employed to me,” said Vendryes. With the money earned from the salons, she was able to buy land and build one of the first small hotels to be owned by a Jamaican woman. She opened the Royal Court, a 26-room resort in the early 1970s, building an additional four rooms afterwards. Salon doyenne, tourism trailblazer Dorothy Vendryes is dead VENDRYES Parnel Peart, his wife, Anakay Thomas Peart, and daughter Zemora inside the tent where they sleep at nights along Bob Marley Beach in St Thomas. PHOTO BY AINSWORTH MORRIS 6 3 9 17 22 5 13 14 17 18 3 4 16 17 18 6 14 16 19 22 18 19 12 18 1 8 4 8 16 Winners $1,000 ea. No Winner 1 Winner $800,000 No Winner No Winner No Winner 13 Winners $1,117 ea. 221 Winners $210 ea. 218 Winners $212 ea. 13 Winners $1,420 ea. 308 Winners $200 ea. 15 Winners $1,502 ea. 328 Winners $219 ea. 28 Winners $1,174 ea. 497 Winners $211 ea. 10 28 19 6 12 10 25 5 33 4 0 2 4 8 4 6 0 5 1 9 2 1 2 8 3 8 17 18 19 $800,000 No Winner 40 Winners $786 ea. 634 Winners $89 ea. 20 6 8 16 23 35 36 13 5 3 22 4 7 10 21 28 33 6 3 22 No Winner No Winner 10 Winners $8,471 ea. 24 Winners $451 ea. 364 Winners $217 ea. 4,885 Winners $100 ea. $35,000,000 1 7 4 7 6 1 7 8 7 8 0 2 6 0 0 7 9 1 6 7 $307,000,000 4, 16, 18, 19, 20, 22, 24, 26, 29, 28, 31, 36 1, 2, 3, 9, 12, 14, 15, 17, 22, 24, 29, 31 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 19, 22, 25, 26, 28, 34, 36 1, 4, 5, 8, 13, 16, 19, 21, 24, 25, 31, 36 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, 13, 14, 16, 17, 30, 32, 35 10 M 34 9 29 16 35 M M W W W 14 M 13 M 2 M 11 W 9 W W 12
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