PAULA GORDON, STAR Writer

A tree believed to be able to cure up to 300 illnesses has been in high demand in the northern parish of St James, THE WEEKEND STAR has learnt.

“Mi neva see people gone crazy so yet, not even when Noni did just buss pan di scene,” one resident told THE WEEKEND STAR.

The tree known as the Moringa oleifera, or the ‘Miracle Tree’, is said to be effective in lowering blood sugar and blood pressure. It is also believed to be effective in fighting against skin infections, reducing swellings and calming the nervous system.

Information reaching THE WEEKEND STAR is that a few of the tree’s leaves are sold for anywhere between $100 and $500.

Joyce Duncan, who lives and works in Montego Bay, St James, told THE WEEKEND STAR: “It’s crazy, they have chopped down many of the trees, some of them on the highway close to the airport. Them say it has things in there that are able to heal or give remedy to 300 ailments.”

Duncan noted that the leaves can be found in large quantities selling on the streets in downtown Montego Bay.

She explained that persons have been buying the leaves to make tea and to steam with spinach such as callaloo.

When asked how and why the craze started, she said, “I heard that a lecturer came to the West JamaicaConference and he was giving a lecture. A tree was on the compound and he made mention of it, about the properties and he said he was surprised to see so many in Jamaica and since about last weekend it has become extremely popular.”

trees cut down

THE WEEKEND STAR understands that since then, several trees have been cut down or stripped down to their barks. It is further understood that persons have been coming from far and wide to get a hold of even a few of the leaves.

Duncan reasoned that, “I see a man and him say him purchase $4,000 worth of gas an come from Ochi Rios, cause him say anywhere it is he will have to get it.”

When contacted, The Scientific Research Council confirmed that they had done some research on the tree and that they have put together a publication in their library about it titled The Miracle Tree.

Meanwhile, when checked, the website treesforlife.org revealed that dried Moringa leaves have six times more iron than in spinach, as much protein as in eggs, seven times more vitamin C than in oranges, four times morevitamin A than in carrots, three times more potassium than in bananas and four times more calcium than in milk.

There was the RTI weekend and ATI, now make way for Lesbian Temptation Isle (LTI). A new party series catering to lesbians is being planned in Montego Bay, St James, at the end of this month.

Scheduled to take place from June 30 to July 3, LTI will be held in Ironshore, Montego Bay. The weekend is being advertised on popular social networking site Facebook.com as, “The biggest lesbian party weekend ever!” and “It’s not just a party. It’s a lifestyle.”

According to the weekend’s Facebook page, which was founded last year, LTI will have four parties over two days. The parties include: ‘Ocean Temptation (Under The Influence)’, ‘Lost Planet (Extreme Conditions)’, ‘Lez Glow (All-White)’ and ‘Master and Mistress (Dominatrix Affair)’. The season band, which includes entry to all four parties, is $8,000 with each party being $2,500. VIP bands are $13,000. According to the group’s page, there are 300 season bands available, and 100 bands per individual party.

The site, since its inception, has 550 ‘likes’ on Facebook and has a ‘secret’ group where persons can join and learn more about the event. When THE WEEKEND STAR called the numbers advertised on the page, the group and weekend were described as being extremely private.

bands going fast

Sales for the party are seemingly going fast, as seen by a comment from the organiser on the page which said: “I never knew the season bands would have been going so fast, thanx for the support people. Bands start selling on June 1, you can call to reserve like everyone else. We courier every armband to the respective buyer. Thanx again, this weekend will be hotttt!!”

Persons have been commenting on the page saying, “This is going to be awesome’ am loving this page so far and as for the party’ I can’t wait for it to really happen. Straight people have ATI, I think it’s full time the gay community has something for ourselves where we don’t have to worry about men looking us or putting argument to us. We can actually be around friends who we share a common interest in; FEMALES! I am so digging this event and its page/profile.”

Another person added: “Yep, dis party can’t miss me and wifey, you said it all, so need I say more?”

The privacy of the event is emphasised on the page, which states: “An invitation will be sent to persons with a security code once you’ve purchased your armband. The invitation will be used to collect your armband on the day of the event. Please be advised that this is to ensure that only persons within our community are attending this event.”

A special guest celebrity appearance is also being hinted to take place on the final night of the event. There will also be a Sexiest Stud and Sexiest Femme competition.

http://twitter.com/#!/Popskul/status/76659687583526913

hi met dis is marsha spotlite who live a l.a and come a fl fi di memorial  a breed and tie down di belly jus fi go a dance, but a one ting mi want ask marsha is if shi nuh tired fi breed!!!! every 3 mouths mi hear sey marsha a breed, poor tin look like shi cyan  badah dash wey nuh more, marsha is why u tie down di belly suh jus fi go a dance and stay suh bad, met look pan di first two pic dem and look how big di belly is and look pan di rest and see how marsha tie down di belly jus fi pawty.

VZCZCXYZ0006
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHKG #1043/01 1861801
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 051801Z JUL 07
FM AMEMBASSY KINGSTON
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5006
INFO RUEHDG/AMEMBASSY SANTO DOMINGO 5843
RUEABND/DEA HQS WASHINGTON DC
C O N F I D E N T I A L KINGSTON 001043

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

SANTO DOMINGO FOR LEGATT
STATE FOR INL NBOZZOLO, KBROWN, WHA/CAR KWILLIAMS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/03/2017
TAGS: SNAR PREL JM
SUBJECT: JAMAICA: NEW HEAD OF POLICE ANTI-CORRUPTION
DIVISION FINALLY HIRED

Classified By: DCM James T. Heg for reasons 1.4 (b) & (d)

¶1. (C) Summary: Mr. Justin Felice, current Senior Director
of Investigations for the Police Ombudsman of Northern
Ireland, has accepted the Government of Jamaica’s offer to
become the head of a new Anti-Corruption Division within the
Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) beginning in September 2007.
Felice intends to set up two units within the Division, one
public and one covert. He has received a verbal promise from
the Minister of National Security, Peter Phillips, that the
Ministry will provide the Division with the material and
moral support it needs to succeed. Felice understands that
corruption in the JCF is pervasive and that it will take
years to clean up the force, but he also recognizes that
within his first six months in office he needs to land a
pretty big fish to in effect justify his salary, which is
three times the amount a Jamaican police officer of similar
rank would receive. End Summary

¶2. (C) Felice, who will serve at the rank of Assistant
Commissioner of Police, and will report directly to the
Police Commissioner, is the fourth “International Police
Officer” recruited by the JCF in the last two years. The
others are Deputy Commissioner of Police for Crime, Mark
Shields, Assistant Commissioner of Police for Serious and
Organized Crime, Leslie Greene, and Assistant Commissioner of
Police for Firearms and Coastal Security, Paul Robinson. The
international officers are on expatriate salary packages,
which are essentially the equivalent of three times what a
Jamaican Police Officer would be paid at a similar rank. The
salaries are paid for 1/3 by the Government of Jamaica, 1/3
by the Jamaican Private Sector (Oliver Clarke, a wealthy
businessman and owner of the Gleaner newspaper is the main
donor from the Jamaican Private Sector) and 1/3 by the
Government of the United Kingdom.

Biography

¶3. (U) Felice has worked for the Police Ombudsman of Northern
Ireland since 2003, after a 30 year career as a police
officer in Great Britain. Immediately prior to his service
in Northern Ireland, Felice served with the Lancashire
Constabulary, which covers Northern England, and is one of
largest forces in the United Kingdom. He has a background in
and has commanded Professional Standards, Operations,
Intelligence and Counter Corruption Units.

A Rocky Road Ahead for Felice

¶4. (C) Despite U.S. and UK intervention prior to Felice’s
hiring, the Government of Jamaica did not reassign the
current head of the JCF’s Professional Standards Branch,
Novelette Grant and place the Branch’s portfolio under
Felice. Indeed, when announcing Felice’s appointment,
Minister Phillips commented that despite the good work done
by Professional Standards, more needed to be done to root out
corruption in the JCF, but Phillips declined to explain how
the Anti-Corruption Division would work with Professional
Standards. According to long-time friend, XXXXXXXXXXXX , the head of XXXXXXXXXXXX, is quite incensed about Felice’s appointment viewing it not only as a slap in the face by the Ministry of
National Security and JCF hierarchy, but also an unfair
judgment of her performance, which XXXXXXXXXXXX claims has been stymied at every turn by JCF leadership uninterested in
allowing XXXXXXXXXXXX free reign to investigate anything more
than low-level officers.

¶5. (C) Information gathered from other officers on the force,
Mark Shields, and Leslie Green, indicates that XXXXXXXXXXXX inaction against higher ranking officers was due not only to
the Commissioner’s attempts to block her progress, but
XXXXXXXXXXXX’s own reluctance to put her safety and the safety of
her family at risk by going after fellow officers of
equivalent or higher rank. It is telling that when discussing
his new appointment with the NAS Director, Felice seemed
unaware of XXXXXXXXXXXX’s existence, and when pressed he had no clue how his office would/should interface with the Professional
Standards Branch. The lack of clarity between the
responsibilites of the Anti-Corruption Division and
Professional Standards has to be addressed if there is any
hope of these two organizations working together. Even once
the two groups are defined on paper, Felice will have an
up-hill battle to form a professional relationship with XXXXXXXXXXXX and her staff.

Structure of the new Anti-Corruption Division

¶6. (C) Felice intends to have two units within the Division,
one public that will be staffed by JCF Officers, and one
covert, to be staffed by a combination of Jamaican and
foreign officers. The covert unit would only investigate
high-ranking officers. Felice has received verbal commitment
from Minister Phillips that the Ministry would provide direct
assistance to his unit. By having the Minister’s backing,
Felice will hopefully be insulated from the Commissioner of
Police’s anticipated efforts to sideline Felice by
financially starving the Anti-Corruption Division. According
to Felice, the Minister has also agreed in principle with
Felice’s proposed structure of the Division. Based on his
description of the nature of the work done by the covert
unit, and the need to insulate it from unauthorized
disclosure of its investigations, Felice may try to recruit
personnel for the covert unit from the Jamaica Defence
Force’s Military Intelligence Unit. Felice has already
secured agreement by the London Metropolitan Police (MET) and
MI-5 to second three officers (two from the MET, one from
MI-5) to Jamaica to make up the rest of the covert unit,
however this secondment would be done on a strict cost
recovery basis. Felice has not yet secured the necessary
funding to make this wish a reality. Felice informed the NAS
Director that he is confident that he will find the financial
backing to bring the officers over from the UK, as John
Yates, Assistant Commissioner of the MET, who specializes
among other duties in high profile police investigations, has
promised to intercede on Felice’s behalf with the UK’s Prime
Minster and Foreign and Commonwealth Office to try to secure
the funding Felice needs to go forward. Felice and Yates
have planned a visit by Yates to Jamaica in October/November,
to help Felice secure key stakeholder approval for Felice to
implement his strategic plan for the Anti-Corruption
Division.

NAS funding for the Anti-Corruption Division

¶7. (C) Felice intends to spend his first three months
(September – November 2007) crafting a three-year strategic
plan for the Division. In October, 2007, Felice would like
to bring in David Martin, the current Head of Strategic
Planning for the Operational Services Business Group of the
MET, which is the Group responsible for Professional Services
and Special Investigations, to help craft this plan. Martin,
has vast experience working on Anti-Corruption strategies.
NAS has agreed in principal to fund this subject matter
expert, but is awaiting a more detailed Scope of Work from
Felice before proceeding. Once Felice arrives in September,
2007, NAS will continue to assess the Division’s needs and
see where some limited infusions of U.S. support would make
the best sense and have the greatest impact.

Felice understands need for early success

¶8. (C) Felice knows that it will be a long and difficult
battle to go after the many dirty police officers in the JCF.
Although Felice has taken a long-term view towards stamping
out corruption, perhaps in recognition of the opposition to
his appointment from both within and without the JCF, Felice
knows that during his first six-months he needs to make at
least one big case. It is his hope that as the JCF has never
really taken high-level corruption seriously that there may
be some easily exploitable low-hanging fruit he can grab to
garner that all important first success.

¶9. (C) Comment: Police Commissioner Lucius Thomas, who is
known to be corrupt, and to whom Felice at least nominally is
to report, has only begrudgingly accepted Felice’s
appointment. Thomas along with other members of the JCF,
will likely do all they can, including participating in
extra-judicial killings of witnesses and intimidation of
their fellow officers, to prevent Felice’s Division from
making progress. Serious consideration has to be given to
witness protection, and the offer of immunity in certain
instances, if it would permit the prosecution of high-level
officers. In addition, despite Minister Phillip’s promises,
once on-the-job, Felice may have a very rude awakening as to
the actual level of financial support that the Ministry can
and will provide to the Anti-Corruption Division. While
Phillips considers Felice’s appointment important, Felice
will have to compete against other equally important

high-priority, expensive initiatives, such as the
implementation of a 40-hour work week for JCF officers and
the National Investigative and Intelligence Agency, an Agency
Phillip’s hopes to have in operation by year’s end. Given
the poor fiscal health of the Government of Jamaica, the
reality is that Phillip’s ability to provide funding for any
new initiative is limited and Felice would do well to start
cultivating additional outside donors now. End Comment.

No rapture, no job – Preacher fired but doesn’t want pity

d but doesn’t want pity

Michael Lewis
Doomsday preacher, Michael Lewis, the man who came on local television predicting May 21 to be Judgement Day is now without a job after being fired but he is asking Jamaicans not to feel sorry for him.
Lewis, who was an auditor at a major hotel chain, told THE STAR that he was fired after the Labour Day holiday without an explanation for his dismissal.
“It is clear why I was fired because I am probably the best auditor in town and they had no problems with my work; but I did that (television) interview with the full knowledge of all the possible consequences,” he said. “I wasn’t really surprised by the dismissal, I was more surprised at the timing of the dismissal, my first day back at work.”
Lewis shared the view of the prophecy that was put forward by the American Harold Camping, president of Christian Radio Network Family Stations Inc, that May 21 would have been Judgement Day.
A confident Lewis had predicted that the day before May 21, there would have been a great earthquake.
Some Jamaicans who believed in the prophecy flocked several churches around the island to get baptised. However, May 21 passed and the prediction has been regarded as a false alarm. Since then, a number of local persons have claimed that Lewis should have been beaten or committed to Bellevue for his fake prophecy.
A confident Lewis, however, told THE STAR that he is not fearful and doesn’t believe that the May 21 prediction was a flop.
According to him, May 21 was Judgement Day; but it didn’t materialise the way he had expected.
“Judgement came, and God’s salvation is over. The door of salvation is now closed and the Rapture will happen on October 21,” he said.
Lewis further reasoned: “People are saying that we cannot know the minute or the hour that God will put in his appearance, but why is it we cannot know? It was not yet time for them to know the time but Ecclesiastes 8, verse 5 says that a wise man can discern the time and the Judgement. I want any pastor to respond to at least one time where God brought judgement on the Earth and didn’t give a warning.”
In terms of his former employers, Lewis claims that he isn’t planning to take legal action. “God is my judge and I don’t fear man; but I fear God who can destroy the body and the soul,” he said.
In the meantime, when THE STAR contacted Lewis’ former place of employment the company’s public relations assistant said that they had no comment on the matter at this time
As to his next step, Lewis said that he has not made a decision.