THIS DAY IN OUR PAST

The following events took place on August 22 in the years identified:

1988:Ministry Officers of the of Agriculture engaged in pesticide surveillance, research, produce inspection, plant quarantine (research and development) and post-quarantine functions, are to have a special meeting at the ministry on August 23. The purpose of the meeting is to examine in detail what arrangements are already in place for pre-clearance of agricultural produce, the facilities which are available for testing pesticide residues, and what arrangements may be put in place for field monitoring of the use of pesticides. A ministry spokesman tells The Gleaner that, at the meeting, “we will have to have to talk with people from the Marketing and Extension Branch, who will be charged with carrying out some amount of surveillance in the field into the selection and use of chemicals on vegetables and other produce being grown for export”. These people, he says, will have to ensure that the residues on vegetables, for example, meet the tolerance levels stipulated by the US Department of Agriculture. 1990: Parents who take their children to the nursery run by the Voluntary Organization for the Upliftment of Children (VOUCH) had to take them home again. They might have to do so for the rest of the week if a dispute between the staff and the directors of VOUCH is not settled. Workers at the VOUCH nursery, clinic and prep school stop working in protest against what they say is the unfair dismissal of former Executive Director Beverly Cooper. “Miss Cooper was good for VOUCH. Anything good that has happened to VOUCH, happened under Miss Cooper,” says a disgruntled member of staff. The staff members who gather across the road from the VOUCH centre say Cooper was forced by the directors to resign immediately. She was denied even the chance to meet with the staff for a final time and to personally inform them that she was leaving. They say the ‘resignation’ is unfair and that no good can come out of it.