Real Madrid-styled academy expected by next January

A football academy to benefit underprivileged children on the north coast should become operational by January 2008, following Tuesday’s signing of a declaration of intent between the Spanish-Jamaica Foundation and representatives of Spanish champions Real Madrid at the Rose Hall Complex.

According to Jesus Silva, Spain’s Ambassador to Jamaica who is also president of the Spanish-Jamaica Foundation – formed by the Spanish groups currently investing in Jamaica – the first phase of the proposed academy, which is being modelled on the Real Madrid Foundation’s Schools for Social Integration, is estimated to cost US$500,000.

“There is no problem of financial support for this project. I mean, the Spanish companies represented on the board have expressed a commitment to do it and they are willing and ready to finance it,” Silva said at a press conference at the Spanish Embassy offices at the Courtleigh Corporate Centre in New Kingston yesterday.

He said that figure for the first phase of the project, which includes two pitches, classrooms, changing rooms, offices and parking facilities, could be increased if needed.

“It could be less, could be more and of course, if we have other partners that want to join it… the figure might be even higher, because the more partners we have the bigger we can go and the better we can do the installations,” Silva said, adding that his organisation has tentatively budgeted US$100,000 to run the project for the first year.

Dr Kathy Brown: a big hit on jazz website

Jazz pianist Dr Kathy Brown is so far proving a big hit on a world-leading Internet jazz website. The founder and leader of the Dr Kathy Brown & Friends band reached position Number 82 of the Top 200 most viewed musician profiles on AllAboutJazz.com, arguably the world’s best media reference in jazz and improvised music.

Within a month of being posted on the site, the pianist tallied 470 hits to move up the Top 100 of thousands of registered musicians whose profile appear in the New York based jazz publication.

The All About Jazz (AAJ) tabloid and Internet magazine, which, at the time of writing, has on register 13,790 jazz musicians, records an average of one million Internet viewers per month from across the world since 2006, recording a phenomenal 47,151 hits on January 15 this year.

Of the Top 200 musician profiles viewed, Kathy Brown appears four positions behind her mentor Ahmad Jamal (78), six behind Ella Fitzgerald (76), two and four places before pianist Herbie Hancock (84) and trumpeter Chet Baker (86) respectively.

A sample of names appearing before Brown include singers Sarah Vaughn (72), Ray Charles (67), and Michael Buble (68) saxophonist Kenny Garrett (58), band leader Duke Ellington (50), John Coltrane (36), Louis Armstrong (27), Wynton Marsalis (21), Thelonious Monk (8), and master trumpeter Miles Davis (4).

Special Olympics team short of $11.6 million

Jamaica’s Special Olympics team is in need of some $11.6 million to participate in this year’s Special Olympics World Games to be held in Shanghai, China.

“At the moment it’s hard to say how much we have collected so far since we still have commitments and are still in the process of putting our figure together,” Lorna Bell, executive director of the Special Olympics team, told the Observer after a special ceremony held on Monday.

The event, held at Twin Gates Plaza in Kingston, not only marked 100 days to the Games, but also saw the hoisting of the Special Olympics team flag for the event.

Bell said that after the response she received after the ceremony things are looking good for the team’s departure.
“We should be leaving Jamaica come September 28,” she said positively.

Commitments have come in from organisations such as United Way of Jamaica, UNICEF and First Caribbean Bank.

Maurice Bryan, sponsorship and promotion manager at Digicel, the main sponsor, handed over $2million to the team. This amount is the last of three payments from a commitment made three years ago of $5 million to be paid over a three-year period towards administrative expenses.

Digicel, Bell said, will be making their contribution towards the trip to China.

Eastwood Limited, who will be monitoring the countdown of the number of days to go on a daily basis, also handed over $500,000 towards the trip.

The Jamaica Constabulary Force recently completed their Torch Run and has set aside a sum of $2 million towards the event.

Blair: That’s it. The end

LONDON, England (AFP) – “That’s it. The end.” The final words of Tony Blair reflected the restrained manner of his departure yesterday after one of the longest, slowest goodbyes in British political history.

For anti-Iraq war protestors, though, his resignation could not come soon enough.

“I’m hoping that Gordon Brown will be stronger and not let Bush dictate,” said Donna Mahoney, holding up a picture of her dead husband Peter, a soldier who killed himself in 2004 after a tour of duty in Iraq.

The 44-year-old was speaking at his final question-and-answer session with lawmakers before Brown – his finance minister for the last decade – finally took office, seven weeks after Blair announced he was quitting.

In some respects, Blair’s farewell mirrored the scene when he first moved into 10 Downing Street, the office of the British premier, in May 1997.

Then, he posed with wife Cherie and his young children Euan, Nicky and Kathryn, acknowledging the ecstatic applause of supporters hoping he would usher in a new era in the country’s political life.

Women 100m Reebok Grand Prix 2007- Veronica Campbell

Men 200m Reebok Grand Prix 2007- Bolt vs Spearmon

Kartel, Mavado make peace

After weeks of intense lyrical feuding and spurts of physical violence believed to be linked to the lyrical war between Vybz Kartel and Mavado, a press conference was held yesterday at the Jamaica Pegasus, where both artistes under the guidance of DCP Mark Shields and Kimani Robinson called a truce.

According to Vybz Kartel, “this is not a publicity stunt, wi si seh di ting all a reach inna di schools an it a guh too far suh we haffi do sum’n.”

Mavado also agreed that the feud was doing more harm than good for the music.

More harm than good

“Clashing a sumting weh a go always happen but when it reach on a level where it escalate to a more violent ting, den it haffi level. These tings nuh really help we as an artiste, cause it don’t help di music. When it don’t help di music, it don’t help us, it breaks us down and breaks down di whole music,” Mavado said.

Both artistes said that if they led by example and made the first move towards peace then others, including their fans, entourages and other personalities in the music would eventually follow suit.