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

“Emotional pain is not something that should be hidden away and never spoken about. There is truth in your pain, there is growth in your pain, but only if it’s first brought out into the open.”- Steven Aitchison One aspect of this pandemic which is rarely spoken about is the emotional toll and the negative impact this virus is having on the mental health of so many. A significant number of us have been experiencing or know of someone who has experienced some form of anxiety or panic attack since the novel coronavirus has taken centre stage and upended our lives. Experiencing occasional anxiety is a normal part of life. The Mayo Clinic says, people with anxiety disorders frequently have intense, excessive and persistent worry and fear about everyday situations. Often, anxiety disorders involve repeated episodes of sudden feelings of intense anxiety and fear or terror that reach a peak within minutes (panic attacks).   Common anxiety signs and symptoms include: Feeling ner...

The prevalence of circumcision is the percentage of males in a given population who have been circumcised. In 2010, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated 30% of adult males worldwide aged (15+) are circumcised. It is estimated that 20.7% of males in the United States of America are circumcised; virtually 0% of males in Honduras; 45% of males in South Africa, to over 90% of males in Israel. Male circumcision (MC) is not among the cultural practices of Afro Caribbean males. In a study edited by Susan Marie Graham examined male prevalence of circumcision among men in Western Jamaica. The research revealed that fourteen percent (14%) of the respondents reported that they were circumcised. The research entitled “ Factors Associated with the Acceptability of Male Circumcision Among Men in Jamaica” discovered that among the reasons given for men not being circumcised are; not changing the way God made the penis, the fear that the surgery may damage the penis and inability ...

Each year on April 17 the international community pauses to commemorate World Hemophilia Day. The day is set aside to bring awareness to hemophilia as well as other bleeding disorders.   Since 1989, World Hemophilia Day is the day the entire bleeding disorders community comes together to celebrate the continuous advances in treatment while raising awareness and bringing understanding and attention to the issues related to proper care to the wider public. Hemophilia is an inherited bleeding disorder which impairs the body's ability to control blood clotting or coagulation.   Individuals with hemophilia do not bleed any faster than normal; however, they can bleed for a longer time. The blood of such individuals does not have enough clotting factor. It should be noted the clotting factor is a protein in blood which controls bleeding.   The World Federation of Hemophilia states hemophilia is quite uncommon. Approximately 1 in 10,000 people are born with it.   The ...

“Hunger is not an issue of charity. It is an issue of justice.”- Jacques Diouf Amidst the international focus on the novel coronavirus, the pending disaster of locust invasion in Africa has escaped the attention of the international community. With 54 sovereign countries on the continent, it is rather troubling that most times the news emerging from the African continent is negative. The continent already is bedeviled by the coronavirus and will now be required to mobilize resources to counter this locust invasion. Billions of the young desert locusts are winging in from breeding grounds in Somalia in search of fresh vegetation. Millions of Africans, many of who are in vulnerable subgroups are at risk from famine. The problem of locust invasion is more compounded given the time we now live in; a period of quarantine, social and physical distancing which is necessary to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Countries in East Africa, such as Kenya, Ethiopia and South Sudan have also bee...

“He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.”-   St. Matthew 28:6   Easter Sunday gives us hope. If ever there was a time when the world was in need of hope it is now. Many of us are having a difficult time coping during this pandemic. We are living in times which can be viewed as not normal. It is abnormal to see churches closed; especially in Jamaica which prides herself as a God-faring nation. On Easter Sunday, Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead after his crucifixion and burial. Churches are usually standing room only as Christians and non-Christians alike congregate to worship and reflect on the true meaning of Easter. #Easter marks the end of Holy Week and the culmination of the Lenten Season. Jesus’ resurrection marks the triumph of good over evil; sin and death. It is the singular event which proves that those who trust in God and accept Christ will be raised from the dead. Since Easter represen...

As children growing up we played school. I recall we had a blackboard and chalk. Yes, we had real school at home. Our parents, particularly my mom Vinette did not like to see too much playing. I was always surrounded by books. I read during my leisure so too my siblings. Books were a feature of my home. I had to read the daily STAR for my dad Fitzroy each evening when he got home from the garage. I would use syllabication to pronounce unfamiliar words. There was not much room for stumbling and or the mispronunciation of words. In fast forwarding to March 2020 and the coronavirus the educational landscape has changed. The Government of Jamaica ordered the closure of   all educational institutions in Jamaica on March 13 in an effort to curtail the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Our schools have been closed since then. The pandemic has claimed more than 108,000 lives globally. Jamaica has recorded 65 confirmed cases and more than 1.8 million people worldwide have ...

"But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, we have no king but Caesar. Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away. And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst."- St. John 19:15-18 Good Friday has always been a sober occasion for the thousands of followers of Christ. Jesus’ crucifixion on Good Friday is by no means the end of the narrative. Jesus’ act of selflessness and pure love is still with us today. For the most part the atmosphere of a Good Friday service in Jamaica is characterized by the wearing of dark and funeral like clothes to church. These acts of symbolism contribute greatly to the solemnity of the occasion. The dominant colours of a Good Friday...

“So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you?   You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am.   If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.   For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.   Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him.”- St. John’s 13:12-16 The devil is a liar. In an age of COVID19 pandemic and all the precautionary measures which have been instituted by governments across the world to curtail the spread of the virus let it be known that Easter is still on. Easter is perhaps the most significant and oldest of all religious celebrations in Christendom. For most of us who have been socialized in a Judea-Christian background Easter is very precious and sacred.   Holy Thursday ...

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Institutional racism affects people of colour in many aspects of their lives. When we speak of racism we usually refer to individual prejudice or bias. However, a far more problematic form of racism is structural or institutional racism. The term institutional racism was first used by Carmichael and Hamilton in 1967 in the book “ Black Power: The Politics of Liberation ” The concept was used to purposefully differentiate individual racist acts from what we can describe as policies or practices that are built into the structures of various social institutions, and which continue to operate even without the active support and maintenance of individuals. It can be argued that institutional racism has probably been with us for as long as human societies have been formally or legally divided into races. The United States of America has had and continues to have its fair share of racism...

“5G will have an impact similar to the introduction of electricity or the car, affecting entire economies and benefitting entire societies.”- Steve Mollenkopf We are always in a search to discover new avenues for human development. According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), development is a process of enlarging people’s choices, increasing their opportunities for education, healthcare, income and employment and covering the full range of human choices from a sound physical environment to economic and political freedoms. The telecommunication sector embodies the urgency placed on development, in order to enhance how, and the speed at which we communicate with each other, as well as how artificial intelligence communicate. Many of us cannot imagine a world without us having our cellular phones, tablets, laptops and other devices which keep us connected.   The world for the most part is currently using 4G Technology; however, there are a few countries of which...