THIS DAY IN OUR PAST

The following events took place on January 18 in the years identified:

1970: Jamaican A motion calling on the Government to sponsor a team of volunteers to Biafra is passed at a meeting of representatives of six organisations, held at the headquarters of the Council of Afro-Jamaican Affairs. The organisations represented at the meeting are the African Nationalist Union, the Council of Afro-Jamaican Affairs, the UNIA, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the Ethiopian World Federation and the Rastafarian Brethren, Chairman id M. B. Abeng Doonquah. The committee also discusses a publication concerning the George William University affair and recent killings of Black Panthers, sent by the president of the Guyanese organisation, Ascria. As a result, it is approved that January 25 be declared Caribbean Day of Solidarity, when West Indians will demonstrate support for black Americans.

1984: Minibus operators whose licences expire at the end of December 1983 are to be granted interim licences by the Licensing Authority beginning on January 19, 1984 informed sources tell The Gleaner. The decision to grant the interim licences is taken at a meeting between Minister of Public Utilities and Transport Pearnel Charles and subfranchise package-holders in the Kingston Metropolitan Region, at the Ministry. This move in effect throws out a previous decision by the Minister to grant interim licences on the basis of a sub-Franchise holder stamping the company’s seal on the expired licence and circumventing the payment of revenue to the Collector-General’s Department. 1990:fireboat Eight fire units and are used to put out a blaze at Jimpex Ltd, furniture manufacturers at Harbour Head, Rockfort, East Kingston. The loss is put at more than US $4 million.One of the 40 staffers says that at about 9.45 a.m, “we just saw fire gushing from the storeroom which was locked”. None of the workers could say how the fire (the 19th recorded in Kingston since 1990) started.