2020: A year of trials and tribulations

The year 2020 was unmistakably the annus horribilis of generations stretching back a century, when the flu killed an estimated 50 million and brought the globe to its knees.

The novel coronavirus, which was first identified in Wuhan, China, crippled global travel as countries mounted barriers in a bid to curb the outbreak that has killed 1.8 million people and infected around 85 million.

Jamaica’s management of the crisis received wide acclaim for the Government’s public health education and imposition of tough measures to rein in the spread of the virus. But the administration took flak for the stand-off with voyage-weary citizen crews stuck on cruise ships for months, the state of quarantine facilities, the pace of testing, and the staging of a general election amid a spike.

The country grappled with headwinds in February as cruise-sector interests resisted tough coronavirus restrictions, but that advocacy collapsed as the industry became submerged under the weight of COVID-19 cases.

Jamaica’s first case emerged in March, sparking a slowdown or shuttering of vast industries across the island. Tourism ground to a halt, schools were ordered shut, and curfews and other containment measures choked the economy of its life. The upshot: At least 135,000 people lost their jobs, with thousands more forced to work limited hours as consumer income dried up. The economy is expected to shrink by around 10 per cent for fiscal year 2020-2021.

Zoom meetings and press conferences became daily rituals. Snap quarantines curtailed movement and freedom. And death and despair stalked as clusters emerged across the island.

Beyond the dollar figures and other raw statistics, the new coronavirus’ influence was most marked in how it redefined human interaction and life in general. Hugs and handshakes became dispensable. Facial recognition was almost impossible behind masks. Obsessive compulsive disorder for bleach, disinfectant, sanitiser, and soap turned the modus operandi for most.

Dislocation and distancing had far-reaching social consequences. Students lost the privilege of play with schoolmates and suffered learning loss, with up to 400,000 without ready access to online classes in autumn. Others, especially the very young or disabled, were victims of the novelty and inherent deficiencies of distance learning.

Offices emptied as thousands of employees worked remotely from home.

The infirm and elderly at care homes were barred from visits from their family, for fear the virus would spread. And many, spanning all age ranges, wrestled with depression and other mental illnesses caused by loneliness, segregation, and ostracism.

COVID-19 became the scarlet letter, its stigma triggering hysteria, victimisation, and threats of personal injury or the destruction of property.

NEW-FOUND STRENGTH

But even as the human spirit was tested, Jamaica saw new-found strength in its entrepreneurial class, with thousands of persons pivoting to new income streams to stay afloat.

Jamaican Shamir Saddler, CEO of start-up SmartTerm, elbowed room from Zoom by providing a viable learning portal for teachers and students.

While some companies cut staff, food-delivery outfits gobbled profits and increased hires as online transactions boomed.

Little-known dressmakers and brand-name designers turned to manufacturing masks – the highest-demand attire globally.

Flood rains and landslides buried hopes and dreams in October and November, destroying homes and decimating farmlands, especially in eastern Jamaica. The disaster bill has run into billions of dollars.

But even amid the gloom of 2020, the spirit of volunteerism shone through, like Taneka McKoy Phipps and her team of teachers, who took to the streets on weekdays writing lessons on community blackboards to keep poor children educated while schools were closed.

Others’ tales of strength and determination drew support. There was Daphne Williams, a disabled dressmaker in Smithville, who sews with the help of her feet; and Kevin Robinson, the Clarendon man crippled by a gunman’s bullet, who endeared a publisher to tell his story of hope and triumph.

There was Yvonne Sterling, a one-time popular singer who was languishing in poverty in a flood-hit community. Sterling’s living conditions touched hearts in Jamaica and as far as Brazil to raise donations and rescue her from squalor.

And a blind couple, Dwayne and Staniece Walker, showed that nothing quite tugs at the heartstrings like a guy in love with girl who tough out the hardest of circumstances together.

The year 2020 was a cocktail of Dickensian paradox – “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times”. The struggle has vaccinated most with battle-hardened courage. Come on, 2021, give us your best shot!

JANUARY

1: The ban on styrofoam packaging in the food and beverage industry took effect. Despite initial resistance, the policy has widespread compliance, but raises another problem as non-biodegradable plastics take their place.

1: There are reports of multiple injuries in several gun salutes ringing in the new year. A 15-year-old girl is shot in the head shortly after a watchnight service in Mt Salem, a news reporter is wounded in the chest, and a lawyer is hurt while celebrating on a balcony.

3: Miley Cyrus settles a lawsuit with Flourgon after the Jamaican entertainer sought US$300 million in his claim that she stole the lines “we run things, things no run we” from his 1988 hit song. Details on the settlement were not revealed.

9: Clansman gangster Tesha Miller is sentenced to 38 years in prison in relation to the 2008 murder of Jamaica Urban Transit Company boss Douglas Chambers. It is hailed as a major victory for the security forces and the justice system after several previous failures to tag him with iron-clad convictions.

12: JDF corporal Doran McKenzie murders his girlfriend and then kills himself in bizarre circumstances that jolt the nation. Associates of the soldier, who said, “Satan was in him”, indicated that he had threatened to kill his partner in December.

13: The McKenzie murder-suicide is followed by the killing of Nevia Sinclair in Brinkley, St Elizabeth. She was murdered in her sleep. An ex-lover has been charged.

15: The Gleaner publishes a series of exclusive stories from a then yet-to-be-tabled special audit report detailing flagrant abuse, wanton spending, and a lack of fiduciary responsibility at the Caribbean Maritime University. The trove of stories reverberate beyond President Fritz Pinnock and leads to an overhaul of the university’s board and interrogation by parliamentary committees.

21: Eight-year-old Galen Buchanan goes missing and is later found dead in the Kingston Harbour, the victim, allegedly, of a domestic conflict. The boy’s mother’s partner, Ochest Rose, was charged.

22: Heartbreak is over for the mother of Nyyear Frank, the infant who was abducted in October 2019. The child was found in Hopewell, St Andrew, and a 22-year-old prosecuted.

26: Koffee creates history by becoming the youngest-ever winner of the Reggae Grammy with her EP Rapture. She is also the first woman to take the award.

29: Cornel Grant, a Calabar High School student battling cancer, returns to school with a hero’s welcome after missing classes for two years. He dies on October 10 after a courageous fight with a brain tumour.

FEBRUARY

11: Kari Douglas crosses floor to join the ruling Jamaica Labour Party, saying her erstwhile political organisation did not allow for progressive thought.

13: A massive data breach at VM Wealth causes information for around 5,000 customers to be inadvertently sent to clients, causing a scramble among investment executives.

19: A soldier reportedly shoots his wife’s lover, a policeman, at their Portmore home. It is one of several lover’s rage dramas involving soldiers in 2020, raising questions about whether the poster boys of discipline had lost control of their emotions.

21: A Fesco service station in Mandeville is rocked by an explosion, killing one man and injuring several others. Dramatic footage catches the blast and a man, engulfed in flames, walking on to the street. The incident resurrects concerns about safety at petrol stations.

27: Visually impaired University of the West Indies student Jasmine Deen goes missing. Her disappearance stokes national outrage and raises awareness about the vulnerability of the disabled. Two men are charged in relation to her disappearance, but her body has never been found.

29: Sixty-five-year-old Patsy Davidson-Powell is slain at her Junction, St Elizabeth home. The murder was allegedly committed by a jealous lover in his 70s.

MARCH

2: Chinese businessman Kenneth Li and his personal guard Carl Reid are shot dead by gunmen in a brazen daylight robbery in Montego Bay. It was one of many attacks on Chinese operators, triggering the reported use of facial-recognition technology in security surveillance.

9: The Gleaner reports two Cabinet ministers warning that the shutdown of the cruise sector was imminent as the coronavirus crisis soared globally and neared Jamaica’s shores. This followed days of tightening restrictions on cruise calls here.

10: Jamaica records its first case of the novel coronavirus. Finance Minister Nigel Clarke’s announcement of a cut in the GCT rate is drowned out by the significance of the crisis and a $7-billion COVID relief plan.

12: Schools are ordered to close their compounds to curb the spread of SARS-CoV-2.

13: Jamaicans awake to news of six more cases. Jamaica is declared a disaster area and sections of Bull Bay quarantined. Following day’s Gleaner edition revealing that six parishes and 300 contacts were on health authorities’ radar becomes most read story of the year.

16: The body of businessman and construction law campaigner Roger Chang is found with multiple stab wounds in Portland. Five people were charged with his murder.

18: A 79-year-old man travelling from New York is the first COVID-19 death in Jamaica. It sparks a lockdown of Corn Piece district in Clarendon the following day.

31: Prime Minister Andrew Holness announces nightly curfews to take effect on April 1. They are to become a standard measure in coronavirus containment, extending into 2021. The curfews decimate the nocturnal economy.

APRIL

1: Dayne Mitchell gains notoriety by being arrested on the first night of the nationwide curfew after the video of an expletive-laden rant against the prime minister goes viral. He is fined $60,000 in December.

10: First worker of the Alorica call centre in Portmore tests positive for the coronavirus, marking the beginning of an explosion of cases. The Alorica cluster redefines the war on COVID-19, with 236 infections eventually linked to the workplace. It triggers greater scrutiny on BPOs.

15: St Catherine is placed under lockdown because of the Alorica cluster, crippling the parish’s economy.

22: All BPOs, except certain exempted companies, are ordered to close their plants in response to surging COVID-19 cases at Alorica and elsewhere.

24: Jodian Fearon dies on a hospital floor after a string of fiascos, first triggered by coronavirus fears, shortly after giving birth.

MAY

6: An eight-year-old girl and a teenage boy are killed in a tit-for-tat gang war in west Kingston.

12: The skeletal remains of five people are found in shallow graves in Danger Island, an area adjacent to Washington Boulevard.

15: Mastermind Sanja Elliott and four others are found guilty in the $400-million fraud case involving the Manchester Municipal Corporation. Elliott is later sentenced to five years in prison.

16: Media mogul Oliver Clarke dies after battling cancer, closing a chapter on his larger-than-life influence that transformed The Gleaner Company into a powerful force in the Jamaican landscape.

17: It’s announced that Jamaica is being blacklisted by the European Union because of deficiencies in its safeguards against money laundering and terrorist financing.

27: Susan Bogle, a 43-year-old disabled woman, died after being shot in the chest in her August Town home. The shooting draws national outrage, with residents claiming that a soldier was culpable. However, ballistic and other investigations are inconclusive.

JUNE

22: Two cops are killed and others injured in a botched operation in Horizon Park, St Catherine, apparently by a single gunman. The attacker, Damion Hamilton, 39, is cornered and killed by cops hours later in St Andrew. A third cop, Leon Clunis, dies weeks after being shot.

22: Saharan dust blankets Jamaica.

23: A political party full of pastors, provocatively dubbed by The Gleaner as the ‘God Squad’, announces it will challenge for the next election in most seats. Promising to ban casinos and strip clubs and abolish income tax, the party eventually pulled out of the race.

24: George Williams walks free after spending 50 years in prison without trial, after being charged with a murder in 1970. He is the beneficiary of public outrage over the neglect and death of Noel Chambers, another mentally ill inmate, in January.

24: Three western Jamaican police officers were charged in connection with a sweeping narcotics operation spanning two US cities.

24: Daryl Vaz is stripped of the land and environment portfolio and reassigned after seeking to lease a plot for the construction of a cabin on protected lands in Holywell. Vaz pulls out of the deal, but is criticised for engaging in a conflict of interest.

26: A month after American George Floyd is hailed as a martyr after a policeman kneels on his neck, Jamaica’s Governor General (GG), Sir Patrick Allen becomes embroiled in controversy after it is revealed that his own insignia bore the emblem of a white figure stepping on a black man’s neck. The GG suspends personal use of the Order of St Michael and St George insignia in response to public pressure.

28: St Ann’s Bay Mayor Michael Belnavis comes under increasing scrutiny over building breaches amid a Sunday Gleaner probe into the capture of state land by a company he owned.

After a Nicodemus demolition hours before the July 28 edition of The Sunday Gleaner is published, Belnavis quits less than two weeks later, buffeted by other scandals, including the set-up of a charging port at taxpayers’ expense to fuel his Porsche and a multimillion-dollar clean-up of Ocho Rios.

30: An Integrity Commission report on the Petrojam scandal suggests that persons were strategically positioned at the oil refinery as part of “corruption-enabling mechanisms”. A number of high-ranking persons are singled out for scrutiny.

JULY

14: Parliament indicate that it was amending legislation to ensure that a minimum of 30 per cent of either sex comprises government boards and that active politicians be barred from serving on public boards.

15: Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton runs a temperature at a COVID-19 press conference when reporter Zahra Burton asked if he was cheating on his wife. Tufton hit back that it was “none of your business”.

The saga centred around whether Market Me, a marketing company, was contracted favourably to undertake Jamaica Moves and other projects because Tufton reportedly had a relationship with one of Market Me’s principals. Investigations raised eyebrows about transparency and procedural missteps, as well as acknowledgement that the ministry did not own its branded wellness programme.

16: J.C. Hutchinson faces a torrid week of scrutiny after a series of Gleaner stories unearths impropriety in the handover of state farmlands to a company in which his live-in partner and mother of his son has an interest. His son is also found to have benefited from the arrangement.

Despite his initial defence of his actions, mounting pressure forces Prime Minister Holness to replace Hutchinson as agriculture minister and draws an apology. The Government announces a raft of reforms and investigations as clouds of nepotism hang over the administration.

19: Victor Wright is enmeshed in a property squabble after Prime Minister Holness hints that an opposition legislator has captured government lands. Wright and SCJ Holdings engage in a tit for tat over property payments and a looming court battle to resolve the dispute.

22: Attorney-at-law Isat Buchanan has egg on his face after publicly claiming that a judge had ruled that the detention of five men under a state of emergency was unconsitutional. The writs published a day later did not corroborate the claim. Buchanan is scolded for misrepresenting the judiciary, but was vindicated by a ruling in mid-September.

29: Hundreds of students at The University of the West Indies balk at skyrocketing fees for some programmes, with tuition costs climbing by more than $100,000. The university’s collection crisis was laid bare in December when it disclosed that it could not meet the early Christmas payroll of December 18 because of falling revenue from student fees.

29: Approximately 370 positions are made redundant after J. Wray & Nephew Ltd confirms, after weeks of dithering, that it is pulling out of sugar production and closing the historic Appleton Estate Sugar Factory in Siloah, St Elizabeth.

30: Asafa Powell is hauled to court by Amita Persaud-Webb, his daughter’s mother, who presses for the Jamaican sprint star to pay $40,000 in child maintenance monthly. The case hung on the outcome of a paternity test for the then seven-year-old child.

30: Marvin Orr and Adrian Morgan, the men who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in relation to the 2014 death of 31-year-old Mario Deane, are released from custody after serving longer than the five-and-a-half-year sentence they eventually received. Deane, who had been arrested in 2004 for possession of a ganja spliff, died after being brutally beaten while in custody at the Barnett Street Police Station.

31: The mother of a then five-year-old child says she won’t cut her daughter’s hair after the Supreme Court rules that Kensington Primary School did not breach constitutional rights when access was reportedly barred. The decision resurrected debate about perceived cultural prejudice against dreadlocks and black self-hate, as well as whether the court itself erred in making some pronouncements.

31: Jamaican farm worker Earl Edwards, 63, dies of COVID-19 at Gebbers Farms in Washington state. His death forms part of an investigation that led to the company being fined US$2 million for coronavirus safety and health breaches. Local lawyers believe a negligence suit may be viable.

AUGUST

2: Six reputed members of the feared Bushman Gang are killed in a military-led operation on August 2, a blow to a criminal network the police said enjoyed a reign of terror. Two of the dead bore the aliases ‘Terminator Boy’ and ‘Hitler’.

11: After teasing the nation for months, Prime Minister Andrew Holness walked into Gordon House in his green Clarks, a sign of readiness for the general election. He announces that election day would be September 3 and nomination day is August 18.

13: Firebrand Muslim cleric Sheikh Abdullah el-Faisal is extradited to the United States to face terrorism charges in New York. Born Trevor William Forest, he was initially deported from the United Kingdom in 2007 after serving part-sentence for stirring race hate and violence.

19: It’s revealed that 65-year-old Portland businessman Everton ‘Beachy Stout’ McDonald has been charged in a murder conspiracy that led to his wife Tonia’s body being found in a burnt-out vehicle.

The dramatic circumstances of the death transfixed public interest, especially after contract killer Denvalyn Minott gave details of the $3-million hit. Minott, who was sentenced to 19 years in prison, said he watched as Tonia was stabbed to death.

23: In response to a record one-day spike in coronavirus infections and expectations of a post-election surge, Prime Minister Holness suspends his road campaign and urges others to follow suit.

24: News emerges of disaffection in the Bellefield division of Peter Bunting’s Manchester Central constituency, with residents complaining of years of neglect and complacency. Published under the headline ‘Could Bellefield go soft for Bunting?’, it was an omen of the MP’s defeat to political neophyte Rhoda Moy Crawford, who crushed his bid for a fourth term in office.

25: Usain Bolt tests positive for COVID-19, triggering an investigation into a birthday party held for him, where social distancing was flouted. Guests were also seen not wearing masks.

SEPTEMBER

3: Andrew Holness hands the PNP its biggest electoral defeat since 1980, redrawing the political map with groundbreaking results in constituencies once considered impregnable. Peter Phillips becomes the first PNP president never to be prime minister and resigns as opposition leader and party president.

15: Gabriela Morris, 23, is sworn in as Jamaica’s youngest-ever senator.

15: Daniel Lawrence of the JLP wins the Westmoreland Eastern seat in a magisterial recount, reversing Luther Buchanan’s razor-thin official count victory secured by the vote of the returning officer. Westmoreland, once a bastion of PNP dominance, goes totally green.

25: The Caribbean Examinations Council rejects claims that its grading of the 2020 tests was flawed. However, a review and upgrade of marks at Penwood High School and Jamaica College shows all is not well.

OCTOBER

2: The Holness administration is to “immediately improve” the tax write-off system to make it more transparent following a Sunday Gleaner report involving $4 billion wiped away since 2018, Finance and Public Service Minister Dr Nigel Clarke disclosed.

4: Charles Edward James, reputedly Jamaica’s oldest citizen, dies at age 115 at his home in Westmoreland. However, the family does not have birth documentation to prove his age.

13: Two soldiers are held in a drug bust in Gutters, St Elizabeth, after reportedly engaging the security forces in a high-speed chase and gunfight. Approximately 1,500lb of ganja was found.

23: A man and his daughter are killed in a landslide in Shooters Hill as rains pelted eastern Jamaica.

30: A Justice Georgiana Fraser-chaired committee recommends that a special court be established to deal with the cases of mental-health inmates.

NOVEMBER

1: News broke that the family of the late Jodian Fearon is engulfed in a custody battle over her infant daughter, Peyton-Grace. Jodian’s mother, Portia Green-Haughton, has had charge of the child since her 23-year-old daughter died at the University Hospital of the West Indies shortly after giving birth at another facility.

13: The Court of Appeal quashes a $40-million payout to the family of Tahjay Rowe, a teenager who sustained brain damage when he was born at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital in 2004. The case gained national interest when Prime Minister Andrew Holness visited the family and gave a personal donation in 2018.

15: Five-year-old Mikele Allen is mauled by dogs in St D’Acre, St Ann, leaving him with bites all over his body. Lawmakers pass the dog-attack law two days later in the House of Representatives. The legislation holds dog owners criminally liable for attacks.

19: Businessman Stephen Causwell loses his appeal in the murder of his then girlfriend Nadia Mitchell in 2008.

22: The gun slaying of an 81-year-old woman and her granddaughters, aged six and 10, in Tryall Heights, St Catherine, sparks national outrage.

26: State works czar E.G. Hunter discloses to a parliamentary committee that it will take $1 trillion to upgrade Jamaica’s roads to acceptable standards. He says the annual budget for the National Works Agency doomed the organisation to fail.

29: A Sunday Gleaner story centres on a leaked audit reveals questionable hiring practices and expenditure at the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission, which falls within the oversight of Minister Olivia Grange. Despite claims that the audit is littered with inaccuracies, the commission fails to present any evidence countering the findings.

29: Peter Phillips’ ally, Phillip Paulwell, emerges as chairman of the fractured People’s National Party and Golding backer Dayton Campbell ekes out victory as general secretary. The results maintain the leadership divide in the party.

DECEMBER

1: The Government announces that it would be tapping the National Housing Trust for $57 billion in financing to cushion the economic blow from COVID-19.

2: Gang leader Uchence Wilson is slapped with a 26-year sentence for a range of convictions, but some of his cronies receive lighter prison terms, as short as four years.

7: Justice Patrick Brooks is sworn in as the new president of the Court of Appeal, replacing Dennis Morrison. Brooks vows to maintain the standards and legacy of Morrison.

8: An Integrity Commission report is tabled in Parliament recommending the halt to chicken back and neck imports, citing fraud, tax evasion, and a lack of transparency.

10: The United States imposes visa and asset sanctions on six current and former Jamaican police officers, including the controversial Reneto Adams, for the 2003 Kraal extrajudicial killings. The action coincides with the commemoration of International Human Rights Day.

11: Four people are murdered in the quiet district of Planters Hall, St Catherine, the last major mass killing in Jamaica for 2020. Two teenagers have been charged.

14: Jamaican Nurse Sandra Lindsay creates history by becoming the first person in America to receive the coronavirus vaccine. The New York healthcare official urged Jamaicans and others across the world to take the jab.

15: Deejay Tommy Lee Sparta is charged with gun and ammo possession after being held in New Kingston. The entertainer had been arrested and held under the state of emergency earlier in the year, but had been released.

17: Five people are killed in 24 hours in Effortville, Clarendon, as a conflict purportedly linked to a motorbike spiralled out of control.

17: The dispute over the ecologically sensitive Puerto Bueno takes another twist, with opponents of the mining permit filing a lawsuit against the Government on constitutional grounds.

18: Peter Bunting is sworn in as an Opposition senator after a stalemate over the appointment of Norman Horne.

21: Disabled 17-year-old Shelly-Ann Williams, of Clarendon, is stabbed to death at home while her stepmother reportedly slept.

22: The Government imposes a travel ban between Jamaica and the United Kingdom after a new, more contagious variant of the coronavirus emerged in England’s southeast. The variant was confirmed in Jamaica 11 days later.