THIS DAY IN OUR PAST

The following events took place on November 13 in the years identified:

1968: Prime Minister Hugh Shearer announces that the Marcus Garvey Prize for Human Rights is awarded posthumously to Martin Luther King Jr, as recommended by the special selection committee which was appointed by him earlier this year. The award is one of the measures decided on by the Government of Jamaica as a means of observing the International Year for Human Rights. The value of the prize is £5,000.

1968: A target of 1,500 j obs for the unemployed of Kingston “as a gesture of goodwill” is set by the Jamaica Manufacturers’ Association (JMA) for the approaching Christmas season. JMA President Ray Hadeed stresses that this will not be traditional Christmas work but a genuine effort by the manufacturing sector to lend a hand to the unemployed of the community.

1968: Accord is reached between Jamaica and the Windward Islands not to disturb their basic ratios in supplying bananas to the United Kingdom in 1968, but instead to concentrate on two main objectives. One of which is to strive to send enough fruit to the market to keep housewives in adequate supplies and the other to bring about substantial improvement in the quality of fruit supplied.

1979: Leader of Opposition

Business Percival Broderick is ordered to leave the sitting of the House of Representatives during a flare-up in crosstalk between both sides of the chamber. His departure triggers a walkout by the Opposition. Speaker of the House Ripton MacPherson promptly suspends Broderick when he shouts across to Government backbencher Ferdie Neita. Broderick’s comment was, “Man, shut you behind .... You can talk about my leader like that?”