by Dr. Rubel Shelly

A five-year-old girl in Patterson, Georgia, has a rare abnormality. Congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis (CIPA) is so rare that a clinic specializing in the disorder has only 35 patients – only 17 of them from the United States.

CIPA is caused by a genetic mutation that obstructs development of the nerves that transmit sensations of pain, heat, and cold to the brain. So Ashlyn Blocker never feels pain.

“Wow! That’s great!” somebody opines. “I wish I was lucky enough to have that ‘disorder.’ I pinched my finger in a zipper yesterday – and it still smarts.”

Not so fast. Have you ever thought of the downside of insensitivity to pain? Ashley had a severely scratched cornea when she was eight months old, but nobody knew anything was wrong until her eye was bloodshot, swollen, and infected. Even the diagnostic tests didn’t phase her. That’s when they discovered something was wrong with her neurological system.

Since then the little girl has burned her hand seriously on a hot pressure washer. Bitten through her tongue while eating. Blistered her mouth on food too hot to eat. A fall, an inflamed appendix, a bladder infection, a splinter – things that would cause you pain enough to know you needed to do something about them could kill Ashlyn. She just doesn’t feel pain.

“Some people would say that’s a good thing. But, no!” says her mother, Tara Blocker. “It’s not. Pain’s there for a reason. It lets your body know something’s wrong and it needs to be fixed. I’d give anything for her to feel pain.”

Ever hear an unbeliever mock the idea of a powerful, loving God who still allows pain and suffering in the world he is supposed to have created? The reasoning goes something like this:Pain is bad, and a loving God would eliminate all pain. So there cannot be a God like the one you Christians worship.

Pain isn’t fun. But pain often serves good purposes. It warns. It protects. It teaches. And it is necessary for our growth and development. The “evil” that is associated with pain comes either when we unjustly inflict it upon one another (e.g., rape, intimidation) or when we react to it poorly (e.g., vengeance, unbelief).

What is true of physical pain is also true of emotional and spiritual pain. Pangs of conscience make us sensitive to one another. They require us to weigh the effects of our deeds on our neighbors. Spiritual pain over our sin and alienation from God is meant to send us to Christ for healing.

Far from being an argument against God’s creative power and redemptive love, pain attests his goodness as a natural alarm to our physical bodies. A motive for caring about one another as persons in community. A reason to seek the One who alone can deal with our
eternal needs.

Pain is there for a reason. A very good reason.

In testimony on Tuesday, Jermaine Cohen, 37, a former member of Mr. Coke’s gang who has cooperated with the authorities, offered vivid testimony about a half-dozen killings. He said that Mr. Coke disappeared into the jail with a power saw, hatchet or gun, and appeared to calmly dispatch those who had stolen from his group, not paid him, or otherwise violated his rules.

Mr. Cohen said he remained outside the jail, but heard what was happening. In the case of one man, he mimicked the sound of a power saw that he observed Mr. Coke take in with him.

“One scream, and then I don’t hear nothing more, sir,” Mr. Cohen told the prosecutor, John T. Zach, who was questioning him.

Mr. Cohen, who wore an orange prison jumpsuit and who is serving a federal sentence for illegal re-entry and other charges, testified that his job was to clean up after his boss. He said that he would wait until Mr. Coke left the jail, often with bloody hands and sneakers, and then he would enter, and find butchered remains and blood on the floor.

Mr. Cohen, who has also pleaded guilty to additional gun and drug charges, admitted that he was hoping for leniency at sentencing in return for his cooperation. Mr. Coke, meanwhile, sat impassively at the defense table, watching as Mr. Cohen testified.

During cross-examination, one of Mr. Coke’s lawyers, Stephen H. Rosen, tried to undermine Mr. Cohen’s credibility, citing his use of multiple false identities and leaping on inconsistencies in his testimony. “You’ve got a great memory, sir, for things that happened 15, 16, 17 years ago, but you can’t even tell us what you pled guilty to” under a different name in 2009, Mr. Rosen told the witness at one point.

Mr. Rosen said during a break that the judge would give the defense time to investigate and “determine the validity” of Mr. Cohen’s statements.

Mr. Cohen is one of two former high-level members of Mr. Coke’s group, called the Presidential Click, who have been cooperating with the investigation by prosecutors and the Drug Enforcement Administration, the government has said.

On Monday night, prosecutors filed a 26-page statement from a former senior adviser to Mr. Coke, identified only as John Doe, who said he had been a bodyguard and close aide to Mr. Coke’s father, Jim Brown, in the 1980s, when Mr. Brown ran what prosecutors say was the organization that his son, Mr. Coke, eventually took over.

“Over time, I became, in essence, a trusted senior counselor to the organization,” the former adviser wrote. Prosecutors indicated that the former aide would not be called to testify, but said his statement would be used to try to bolster the government’s case at the hearing, which continues on Wednesday.

Although the hearing resembles a minitrial, it differs in significant ways. For one thing, the standard of proof for prosecutors to make their case is much lower than in an actual trial.

Daniel C. Richman, a Columbia law professor and former prosecutor, said that despite the narrow range in which Mr. Coke’s sentence was likely to fall, prosecutors might be trying to do more than just lock in the highest number.

“They may well have their eye on the audience in Jamaica,” he said, “as well as on the particular victims of the crimes beyond those to which he pled. This becomes an authoritative documenting of the extent of Coke’s crimes.”

A version of this article appeared in print on May 23, 2012,

‘I saw Dudus kill 4’ – Witness tells of murder, guns and drugs
Defence discredits witness at ‘Dudus’ sentencing hearing
Wednesday, May 23, 2012

NEW YORK, USA — A prosecution witness in the case against former Tivoli Gardens strongman Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke yesterday gave details and damaging evidence of murder, gunrunning and drug-trafficking allegedly carried out at the direction of and by Coke himself.
The witness, who is a former resident of Denham Town and Tivoli Gardens, told an evidentiary hearing here that he was part of Coke’s inner circle which operated a criminal system from Tivoli.
COKE… pleaded guilty to racketeering and conspiracy charges in 2011
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He told the court that the system extended to the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom and involved the importation of drugs and guns into Jamaica.
The witness also related in detail the murders of a least four persons he claimed he witnessed Coke carry out at a ‘jail’ in Tivoli.
However, under blistering cross-examination by defence attorney Stephen Rosen, the witness admitted that he had lied about a number of issues relevant to his testimony.
Among them was the fact that he has used several different names and false documents as identification to enter the United States illegally. Twice deported from the US, the witness is currently serving a five- to seven-year sentence for his last illegal re-entry into the US. He is also facing a 30-year to life sentence for murder, and for which he is seeking to enter a plea bargain arrangement with US authorities.
The hearing ended abruptly after the witness told the court that prosecutors did not prepare him to testify, nor had they gone over the evidence with him.
“This may be a good time for us to stop,” an obviously surprised Rosen recommended to Judge Robert Patterson.
Speaking outside the courthouse at the end of the day’s proceedings, Rosen and colleague defence attorney Frank Dotadado said they were pleased.
“The witness has been totally discredited,” Rosen said.
Yesterday’s evidentiary hearing came out of an order by Judge Patterson to hear from previously unnamed prosecution witnesses who had painted Coke as a murderous drug lord who ruled the notorious Shower Posse with an iron fist.
Prosecutors are trying to convince judge Patterson that Coke should be given the maximum 23-year prison sentence. However, the prosecution has indicated that they would be willing to settle for an 18-year sentence.
Coke, who was extradited to the US in June 2010 following a month-long manhunt preceded by three days of gunbattles that left more than 70 civilians and one Jamaica Defence Force soldier dead in Tivoli Gardens, pleaded guilty last year to racketeering and conspiracy charges — much lesser charges than for which he was extradited.
The deaths occurred after thugs loyal to Coke engaged police and soldiers who sought to enter a barricaded Tivoli Gardens in May 2010 to serve an arrest warrant on Coke. Coke escaped the dragnet but was captured nearly a month later while being chauffeured into Kingston by firebrand Pastor Al Miller.
He waived his right to an extradition hearing in Jamaica and was flown to the US the following day.
Another witness is expected to take the stand today. The hearing is expected to end tomorrow, after which Coke will either be sentenced or a date set for his sentencing.
— Additional reporting by Harold Bailey
Dudus used high school track team to obtain visas for drug mules — witness
BY HAROLD BAILEY Observer writer
Wednesday, May 23, 2012

THE Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke evidentiary in the US Southern District Court in Manhattan hearing took a bizarre turn today when a second prosecution witness testified that he used a St Catherine-based High School track and field team in a drug trafficking and visa fraud scheme tied to Coke.
Anthony Brown, who said he was an assistant coach at the school in the late 1990’s, said he entered into an agreement with Coke under which Coke would provide several passports which he then presented to the US Embassy in Kingston to obtain visas.
Brown said the visas were obtained on the pretext that the owners of the passports were members of the school’s track team.
He said he was told by Coke that the visas were required as a means of transporting drugs to the US.
During today’s hearing, Coke was in a pensive mood and often interacted with his lawyers. Coke who seemed to have lost weight since his last court appearance in March, watched the proceedings intensely.
Earlier in the morning the first witness in the hearing, Jermaine Cohen, completed his testimony. Despite the best efforts of Coke’s defense team to discredit him, Cohen bravely stuck to his guns and insisted that his testimony was true.
Both Cohen and Brown refused to make eye contact with Coke even though the accused stared straight at them as they gave damning evidence against him.

Dancehall fans worldwide, it with great regret that I, Adidja Palmer have decided to disband the Portmore Empire. These artistes have been under the Adidjahiem leadership for years, where they have honed their craft and made their mark, and as such, are well on their way to becoming major forces in Dancehall. They have reached a level where they are more capable to take on their careers by themsel…ves, and it would be unfair to them, based on the limited resources of Adidjahiem Records, and current legal woes of the Adidjahiem C.E.O. and team members.

I wish them the best and I am confident that they will live up to my expectations. In the future, Adidjahiem will continue to bring out new acts and groom them for stardom.

Thank You.See More

DI LIE DEM STILL A TELL