2008 in Review
 

Obviously, the major event of the year was Jamaica's overwhelming success in Track and Field at the Beijing Olympics. Read our September 2008 Report on The Beijing Olympics

The University of the West Indies celebrates 60 years. The University College of the West Indies, a College of London University, opened it's Mona doors to 33 medical students in 1948. In 1962 the Institution became the independent University of the West Indies and now graduates about 6,000 students each year. The UWI now has campuses in three Islands,  online courses,  radio and television stations and produces some of the brightest minds in the hemisphere. The UWI also developed Jamaica's Internet and the University Press publishes a wide range of books.

Gleaner photo

In March, Paula Llewellyn was appointed Jamaica's first female Director of Public Prosecutions. Read the Gleaner article

In what appears to have become an annual occurrence, Hurricane Gustav hit us on August 29th.   NASA image of Gustav over Jamaica

Jamaicans Abroad

In November, Jamaica's most famous opera singer, Sir Willard White, was appointed president of the Royal Northern College of Music in the UK. White has sung at Covent Gardens, the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, etc.  proving that we don't produce only reggae singers. RNCM

Jamaican judge at the International Courts in the Hague, Patrick Lipton Robinson, has been appointed President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. His appointment, which commenced in November, will last two years. ICTY

Getty Images

They Left Us in 2008

Hartley Neita, veteran journalist, biographer and press secretary to three Prime Ministers as well as a great amateur historian, on 12th December at 78.
Read the Gleaner Obituary

Keble Munn, former politician and the man who made our extraordinary Blue Mountain Coffee into a business, on 14th of April at 88.
Read the Gleaner Obituary

Joe Gibbs, who produced some of the top songs of the '70s, on 21st February at 65.
Read the Gleaner Obituary

Cedella Booker, mother of Bob Marley, on 8th April at 81.
Read the Gleaner Obituary

Alton Ellis, rocksteady superstar of the '60s and '70s, in London on 10th October at age 70.
Read the Gleaner Obituary

Byron Lee, perennial bandleader, on 4th November at 73. Missed by three generations of party-goers.
Read the Gleaner Obituary

Whylie Lopez, club pianist of the 1940s and '50s, in Cayman on 9th November. He was 96.
Read the Gleaner Obituary

Norman Rae, playwright, producer and theatre critic, on 19th June at 76.
Read the Gleaner Obituary

Desmond Henry, former Director of Tourism and Diplomat, in February at 73.

Bill Bowes, former Commissioner of Police, in March at 82.

Michael Campbell, producer and broadcaster of the 1970s, "Dread at the Controls", in March at 54.

Sister Mary Stephanie, who turned the tiny Holy Childhood High School into a major institution in the 1960s and '70s. I was one of those who passed under her iron gaze. She died in May.

Arthur Gilcrist, former Mayor of Montego Bay, in June at 66.

Roy Shirley, the "High Priest of Reggae", in July at 64.

Christopher Gonzales, sculptor, in August at 65.

Johnny "Dizzy" Moore, trumpeter of the Skatalites, in August at 69.

Dorothy "Dottie Dean" Lacroix, veteran radio broadcaster, in September at 84.

Ermine "Cherry Green" Bramwell, original member of the Wailers, in September.

Edward "Baby G" Gordon, of Alton Ellis' backup band, in November at 70.

Two founding members of the NDTC; sisters Shirley Campbell, in August and Dotlyn Campbell,  in November.

J. A. G. Smith, former politician and labour leader, in December at 88.

Marie Atkins, former Mayor of Kingston, on 28th December at 88.

Internationally, it also seems that many stars left the stage. People like Miriam Makeba, who fought South Africa's Apartheid with her songs (in November at 76) and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who fought the Soviet Union in his novels (in August at 89). People who did remarkable things like Dr Michael deBakey, who developed most of the procedures now used in heart surgery ( in July at 99) and Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to climb Everest (in January at 88). Bobby Fischer, extraordinary chess player (in January at 64) and Yves StLaurent, revolutionary fashion designer, who made it acceptable for women to go to work in pants (in June at 71).

Mainstays of the movies like Paul Newman, Movie Star, race car driver and philanthropist, the only man who still looked sexy at eighty (in September at 83) and Charlton Heston, the First Action Hero (in April at 84) and Eartha Kitt, America's first black sex symbol (in December at 81). Two great science fiction authors: medical doctor Michael Crichton, The Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park, etc. (in November at 66) and the physicist, Arthur C. Clarke, whose brilliant mind created super novels like 2001: A Space Odyssey (in March at 90). One of my favourite mystery writers, Margaret Truman Daniel, daughter of US President Truman (in January at 83) and British playwright Harold Pinter (in December at 78).

It was also the year when many of the cultural icons of my youth faded away. Isaac Hayes, the personification of Funk Music who knew about bling thirty years before the word was invented (in August at 65). Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who the Beatles told us would show us the way to true peace through transcendental meditation (in February at 90+). Bo Diddley, one of the inventors of Rock and Roll, in June at 79. Rick Wright, the keyboards of Pink Floyd (in September at 65) and Mitch Mitchell, drummer of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, (n November at 62). George Carlin, who did for comedy what the others did for music (in June at 71).

Not only good people died; President Suharto, bloodthirsty dictator of Indonesia, died in January at 86.