Nine year old Ngozi Wright (center) engages in conversation with (from right) Minister of Education and Youth Hon. Fayval Williams, Children’s Advocate and National Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons Diahann Gordon Harrison, Chief Executive Officer, Child Protection and Family Services Agency, Rosalee Gage Grey and UNICEF Representative Mariko Kagoshima. Occasion was the opening ceremony for the National Policy Dialogue on Ending Violence Against Children at the AC Marriot Hotel in Kingston on Wednesday (May 25).

Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, on Thursday (February 17) launched Global Tourism Resilience Day during EXPO2020 Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The Day, which is the brainchild of Mr. Bartlett, will be observed annually on February 17.

The observance forms part of the thrust to heighten global tourism stakeholder awareness and actions towards strengthening the industry’s capacity to address and recover quickly from crises and shocks, such as the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and fortifying its resilience and sustainability.

The launch, which was addressed virtually by Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, took place at the DP World Pavilion and formed part of the itinerary for Jamaica’s delegation, headed by Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator the Hon. Kamina Johnson Smith, which is participating in the global expo from February 16 to 20.

Mr. Holness said that the global tourism industry’s emergence from the fallout caused by COVID-19 is a “critical determinant” of the overall pace of economic recovery worldwide, particularly among the most tourism-dependent regions, including the Caribbean.

He noted that while the magnitude of COVID-19 is unprecedented, “there will, no doubt, be other significant challenges that the industry will face, including those posed by climate change”.

“This necessitates a posture that understands the various threats to the industry and the need for a proactive approach to enhancing readiness and capacity to meet the challenges of the present and the future,” the Prime Minister said.

Mr. Holness cited several important lessons emerging from the pandemic, among them the need for greater and more active commitment to behavioural changes among all stakeholders to reduce environmental, social, and human health risks.

He said it is anticipated that more tourists “will opt for sustainable destinations in the post-COVID era”, and destinations failing to reorient themselves towards meeting the demands “are likely to be left behind”.

“The increased demand for a more sustainable brand of tourism, presents an opportunity to prioritise the responsible use of natural resources, the preservation of the assets of the host countries and the strengthening of local involvement and participation in the tourism value chain,” the Prime Minister said.

He noted that the task of resilience-building is especially urgent for regions and subregions with a high degree of tourism dependence, and committed support to “any engagement, initiative or project that seeks to bring intellectual, scientific, innovative, and entrepreneurial minds and energies together for the purpose of sharing and exchanging more resources to solve common problems facing the industry”.

In this regard, Mr. Holness said the convening of a conference at the expo focusing on tourism resilience “is, perhaps, now more fitting than at any other point in the history of the tourism industry”.

He noted that the conference, which took place following the GlobalTourism Resilience Dayclaunch on Thursday, is an “important initiative” and praised the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre for conceptualising and coordinating the event.

“I’m confident that policy, ideas, strategies, frameworks, and models of tourism resilience building will be identified to aid current efforts towards recovery [and] chart our positive future for the industry, and the millions of global citizens whose lives and livelihoods depend on tourism,” Mr. Holness said.

Mr. Bartlett, for his part, noted that many countries have experienced various types of disruptions from which they have not recovered.

“We want focus on capacity-building, primarily for small highly tourism-dependent nations that are vulnerable to many disruptions but are weakly resourced to respond effectively to it,” he said.

He urged industry stakeholders to leverage Global Tourism Resilience Day “to make that statement that the world will now have a chance to predict, mitigate, manage, recover, and recover quickly and then thrive after disruptions”.

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Initial Officer Training Programme (IOTP) provides basic military officer training to Officer Cadets (OCdts) and their equivalents from law enforcement and uniformed services. The programme falls within the tactical level of the Professional Military Education (PME) framework of armed forces and is modelled from the Royal Military Academy Sandhursts’ (RMAS) Commissioning Course.  It was designed with the direct support and guidance of RMAS Instructing and Support Staff.

Traditionally, the Jamaica Defence Force’s (JDF) longstanding partnerships with militaries across the world has seen its OCdts being trained in academies in the following countries: United States, England, Canada, China and India. Upon the return of OCdts to the JDF, there is a requirement for doctrine and operating procedure standardization due to the varying concepts and differing contents of the training they had undergone. This is normally done at the Unit level and later, through a Young Officers’ Course. The advent of COVID-19 added a new level of complexity to travel, thus negatively affecting the process of sending OCdts overseas. Additionally, the ongoing expansion and restructuring of the Force to cauterize the ballooning threats to national security has caused an increased demand for newly commissioned Second Lieutenants.

Due to the carefully adapted military and academic curricula, IOTP serves as the course to treat with the aforementioned considerations. The methodology used addresses each issue directly and the course, through the delivery of a bespoke training syllabus, is fit for the JDF and is also relevant to the militaries and organizations within the Caribbean region and in other parts of the world.

Having the RMAS approach to training at its core, IOTP is designed with a syllabus that sees male and female integration throughout training. The course focusses on developing military skills and command with a leadership ‘golden thread’. The course structure allows the Instructing Staff to educate, build, develop and scrutinize an OCdt’s ability to decide and communicate accurately and ethically while under pressure and or stress. The expectation is that on commissioning, an OCdt will be fully cognizant of the responsibilities and personal conditions that being an Officer imposes upon them. The product of the IOTP will be an ethical and robust Officer who has the knowledge, skills, attitudes and intellectual agility to adapt their decision-making process and approach to any environment.

The home of IOTP is the Caribbean Military Academy (CMA) Newcastle, which is located at the Newcastle Hill Station, St Andrew, Jamaica.

Nestled in the cool hills of upper St Andrew and amidst beautiful trees, ferns, ground orchids, delicate wild flowers and a profusion of ginger lilies, is the Newcastle

Training Depot founded in 1841 by Major General Sir William Maynard Gomm (later Field Marshall). Gomm, a veteran of the wars against revolutionary France and Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica from 1840 to 1841, relentlessly badgered the War Office in London to establish a mountain station for British soldiers in Jamaica soon after taking up his post.

The idea of the hill station was first raised by Gomm in a letter dated April 7, 1840 to Governor Sir Charles Metcalfe. Gomm pointed out that while Up Park Camp was an ideal location for a barracks, it was subject to the ravages of yellow fever. In Jamaica the

British garrison was stationed on the plain at Up Park Camp, Stony Hill, Fort Augusta and Port Royal. Here, on the average, 1 soldier died every 2½ days. According to Russell, the year 1838 was considered a ‘good’ year: only 91 men died. In 1839, 110 men perished and in the following year 121. Initially, the British government was conservative in approving a hill station for the troops in Jamaica. They were concerned about the expense of the venture.

In May 1841, London finally sanctioned Gomm’s efforts to build what is thought to be the first permanent mountain station in the British West Indies at Newcastle. The site selected was a coffee plantation protruding from the southern face of the grand ridge of the Blue Mountains. The British government paid £4,230 for the Newcastle site.

At the outbreak of World War II (1939-1945), life at Newcastle changed a little. The British regiment was replaced by Canadian regiments which remained at Newcastle for the duration of the war. With hostilities over in 1945, the Canadians left and once again a British battalion was stationed there.

In 1958, the West Indies Federation was founded and the infantry regiments of the various Caribbean islands were disbanded and reorganized into the West India Regiment. Newcastle became a training depot, training recruits from all over the West Indies as part of the

newly formed West Indies Federation. In 1962 when Federation was disbanded, the West India Regiment was also disbanded. Jamaica simultaneously sought her independence, which was achieved on August 6, 1962. With independence, Newcastle was given to the Jamaican government as part of a general settlement of all military lands in Jamaica.