THIS DAY IN OUR PAST

The following events took place on November 9 in the years identified:

1947:Area, The Corporate

represented by several thousands of its people, joins with other communities in Jamaica and the British Commonwealth in response to a decree of His Majesty the King in observing the National Day of Remembrance for those who have paid the supreme sacrifice in World Wars I and II. The short service is not unlike those of other November, for while the tugs at heartstrings and the grief borne for loved ones who had carried the torch of democracy aloft in the face of mighty and fearful odds might be eased with the passing of the years, there remains the realisation that these annual remembrance services are reminders that life is real and life is earnest, and that in many home there is a vacant place or places which will never be filled. 1954:by Approval is given

the House of Representatives for the payment of temporary additional allowances to trainee nurses at the University College of the West Indies (UCWI) to equate their position with that of trainees at the Kingston Public Hospital. The motion for extension of the allowances to the UCWI trainees is moved by Minister of Health and Housing Rose Leon. The cost of the allowances, at £26 to £48 a year, will be £4,608 for 1954. A grant in this amount will be made to the UCWI to cover it. 1966:The

inaugural meeting of the Family Planning Advisory Committee is held at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital on North Street in Kingston, and Health Minister Herbert Eldermire challenges members to develop a policy and programmes which lead to lowering the birth rate to 25 per 1,000 women by the year 1976. The aims and objectives of the programme, the minister says, are “in general terms to ensure that the people of Jamaica will be able to bring up their families so that their own and their children’s future will not be blighted because of the sheer impossibility of finding the money to provide food and the means of taking care of their health, educational and social needs”.

–The Gleaner Archives

“De people demma bawl fe sheltah dung deh dem can’t get a room but palace up deh.”

From: Come Wi Goh Dung Deh by Linto Kwesi Johnson