Use Jamaica 50 to Chart Course for Future

Director for Field Services at the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC), Marjorie Leyden-Vernon, has said the celebration of 'Jamaica 50' will provide a platform to positively chart a course for the future.

Mrs. Leyden-Vernon, who was addressing a Jamaica Information Service (JIS) Think Tank on (July 17) at the Montego Bay Regional Office in St. James, stated that the events, while festive, will provide the opportunity to "look at the journey that we have taken to reach this far…so that we can chart the course going forward."

"We do have reasons to celebrate and while we are celebrating…we will have elements that will allow people to reflect and understand and appreciate where we are, the moment that we are in, what we have achieved and where we are going," she added.

Promising that the celebrations in western Jamaica will be memorable, the JCDC Director informed that the planning teams in the parishes of St. James, Trelawny, Hanover and Westmoreland, have together "come up with an exciting, educational slate of activities to celebrate a 'Nation that is on a Mission".

These include Emancipation lectures and symposia, library exhibitions, and some 15 street dances.

She said for citizens who cannot make it to the main town capitals to participate, "we have actually organised to take the celebrations to them" through multimedia screens, which will be set up at strategic locations to broadcast activities across the island.

Further information on parish and national Jamaica 50 activities can be obtained from the JCDC website at www.jcdc.gov.jm.