The Intersection of Gender, Culture and Education: Jamaica: The Next 50 Years!

“Diplomacy: the art of restraining power.”- Henry Kissinger For the most part the Middle East is shrouded in mystery and intrigue.   Perhaps this has to do with a culture which is vastly different from ours in the Western World. Recently, the United States Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, said Iran should behave like a normal nation. For a moment I thought about the comment, then reality kicked in, Iran is a theocracy, and as such the country is not your normal nation. In fact, the entire Middle East is not normal. The region is scattered with kingdoms, sheikdoms and dictatorships. Israel is the only true democratic nation within the region. What is a theocracy?   The origin of the word “theocracy” is from the 17 th century Greek word, “theokratia”. “Theo” is Greek for God, and “cracy” means government.   Theocracy therefore is a form of government operated by religious authorities who claim unlimited power in the name of God.   Iran is governed by a Supreme Leader...

“We have no special needs children. Just children with special needs.”- Uwe Maurer In a survey done in Jamaica, in collaboration with the World Bank, Dr. Barbara Matalon noted that approximately 17 per cent of the population had some type of learning disability. As educators we are always in search of ways and means to improve students’ outcome. The recently published story about baby Soul-Heart has once highlighted how challenging it is for parents with children with Special Needs to find a school. Soul-Heart has high-function Autism and functions exceptionally well at age three. The recently released Primary Exit Profile (PEP) exam results revealed that more work is required in the core subject areas in order to get our students at the level of proficiency. Only 45 per cent of the 41, 000 students who sat the grade- six school leaving examination were proficient in Language Arts, while in Mathematics it was 41 per cent of students who attained proficiency.   In order ...

“Global warming isn’t a prediction. It is happening.”-James Hansen Did you feel the intense heat on June, 22, 2019?   Perhaps not! Jamaica is always hot so many of us had no idea that June, 22, 2019 was different. Jamaica registered the highest temperatures ever recorded in Kingston on Saturday, June 22, 2019. According to the Met Office, the record temperatures were equivalent to just over 39.1 Degree Celsius or 102 Degree Fahrenheit. Yes, it was that hot. Is the world getting warmer? Definitively so! How have you been coping with the summer heat? Have you been to the beach as yet? Do you plan to go to the beach during the hot summer months to cool off?   It seems that the days are longer and the nights are seemingly shortly and punishingly hotter. The average Jamaican home does not have air-conditioning. Of course we would all like the comfort of having air-conditioning in our homes, but the economic reality dictates otherwise. In many homes you will find standing fans ...

"Many of the rites of passage, those rituals of growing up found in our society, are in the form of such comic, practical joking affairs which we ignore in the belief that they possess no deeper significance. Yet it is precisely in their being regarded as unimportant that they take on importance. For in them we ritualize and dramatize attitudes which contradict and often embarrass the sacred values which we proclaim through our solemn ceremonies and rituals of nationhood.”- Ralph Ellison        One of the many pitfalls of manhood and masculinity especially in the Western world is the absence of a Rites of Passage for our boys. This transitional phase from boyhood to manhood can be traumatic for many. This process is made more complicated by an absence of any official ceremony to mark this significant and important moment in the development of a male. Manhood is as much a process as it is a state of growth, but this progression is often not recognized, nor is it ...

“A kingdom man is the kind of man that when his feet hit the floor each morning the devil says, “Oh crap, he’s up!”- Dr. Tony Evans Church was a bit different today. Many congregants had on their church appropriate summer wear which included jeans. The church’s dress code is relaxed during the months of June to August to help us offset the sweltering heat.   We are accustomed to having a pastor delivered sermon; however, instead we had a medical doctor who spoke on the topic: Guard the Man and Heal the Land.   Dr. Michael Coombs is a public health specialist as well as the founder and chair of the National Association of Families (NAF). Like many other Jamaicans today was the first time I was learning about the NAF. The organization is observing their fifth anniversary. Dr. Coombs spoke on the state of manhood and masculinity in Jamaica. He painted a distressing state of affairs regarding manhood not only in Jamaica but globally. When men retreat from their responsibilities t...