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

Repeated lamentations broke the morning’s silence. A rural community of ordinary folks no more. Evil has redefined the landscape. Perhaps the signs were there, perhaps not. A nation distressed. The pain is unbearable. The sanctity of life has been shredded for triviality; even for the baby on the breast. Barbaric! The pain is too much. To bear time and time again is asking too much. Too much for a nation which is already broken. From the bowels of her innermost being a mother travails for her beloved daughter. A nation is breathless as grief and sorrow have become our constant companions. Untold brokenness continues to define and confront us. This path of destruction has become too familiar. Unresolved conflicts. This untamed monster must be tamed. If not in the lyrics of popular culture, where? A collective introspection is urgently needed. To interrogate such lyrics. When did we arrive at this place of death and sorrow? We are all in this together. Incalculable gri...

“World Refugee Day affirms a fundamental tenet of our common humanity: everyone has the right to seek safety whoever they are, wherever they come from, and whenever they are forced to flee.”- UN Secretary-General António Guterres. Humanity is one family regardless of race, skin colour or religious persuasion. The United Nations (UN) states the world is witnessing the highest levels of displacement on record. Alarmingly, an unprecedented 70.8 million people around the world had been forced from their homes by conflict and persecution at the end of 2018. Among them are nearly 30 million refugees, over half of whom are under the age of 18. There are also millions of stateless people, who have been denied a nationality and access to basic rights such as education, healthcare, employment and freedom of movement. The UN adds that World Refugee Day is an international day designated by the United Nations to honour refugees around the globe. It falls each year on June 20 and celebrates the s...

“The bodies of women and girls become battlefields. Rape is used as a weapon of war just as surely as the bomb that blows up a building or the tank that ploughs through a crowd. It points to the scale and ubiquity of gender inequality and gender-based violence in all societies, everywhere, an unacceptable reality that is only exacerbated by crises and conflict.”- Natalia Kanem, chief of the UN Population Fund. Despite all the good and positive things in today’s world evil exists. One such unspeakable axis of evil is that of conflict related sexual violence. According to the United Nations (UN) the term “conflict-related sexual violence” refers to rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced abortion, enforced sterilization, forced marriage and any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity perpetrated against women, men, girls or boys that is directly or indirectly linked (temporally, geographically or causally) to a conflict. The term also encompasses ...

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”- United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Right- Article 1. Too many of us are still uncomfortable speaking about sex and sexual orientation. Sexuality concerns our sexual feelings, thoughts, attractions and these are utilized in our behaviour towards other people. When we speak of gender identity and or sexual orientation we tend to view these constructs through black and white lenses. However, there is a growing section of the population, undeniably a vocal movement whose perception of gender and sexual orientation is seen through shades of grey. Many individuals have now taken on a state of fluidity regarding their gender identity. On either side of the sexual orientation continuum there is heterosexuality and homosexuality; in between is an ever expanding sub set of orientations. Of course there are some i...

“There is no greater violence than to deny the dreams of our children.”- Kailash Satyarthi. All across the globe children are routinely engaged in child labour. Many of us tend to have a narrow definition of child labour. The tendency is for us to view child labour as pertaining to those children who work in factories all across Asia in hot and unbearable conditions. However, child labour is much more complex. The International Labour Organization defines child labour as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development. It refer to work that: mentally, physically, socially and morally harmful to children and or interferes with their schooling by depriving them of the opportunity to attend school obliging them to leave school prematurely; or requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child defines ...

Too many of us take the oceans for granted. This negative attitude towards our oceans is oftentimes derived from a lack of knowledge surrounding the importance of our oceans in the sustainability of life on our planet. The ocean is the lungs of our planet, providing most of the oxygen we breathe, is a major source of food and medicines and a critical part of the biosphere. More than ever before, the ocean is under stress from human activities including greenhouse gas emissions, pollution and over-exploitation. The ocean connects, sustains, and supports us all. The health of the ocean is at a tipping point and so is the well-being of all that depends on it. As citizens of this planet we are mindful of the necessity to work together in order to create a new balance with the ocean that no longer depletes its bounty but instead restores its vibrancy and brings it new life. The World Oceans Day is celebrated on June 8 every year across the globe. Oceans make up over 70 percent of the pla...

Their chaotic arrival sent ripples across the common space; their swift departure was nothing less than miraculous. An extensive and extended pause felt like an eternity. Community upheaval nightly. Is it time to breathe again? Exhale! No one knew when this nightmare would end. Prayers were numerous, intercession continuous. Faith tested repeatedly but God’s word is unwavering and His time is not ours. Sleeplessness! Disturbance! Abuse! Blatantly disregarding man and God. Is there a testimony? So much to say; perhaps another time and place. Guarded whisper just loud enough. The wait was long. The breakthrough appeared unlikely. That atmosphere of lewdness, pulsating through the concrete and steel; replaced by a calmness of community. Once again! Some semblance of order has been restored. The chokeholds of vulgarity and uncouthness have been released. The mysterious works of God continue to confound; cascading in such a surreal feeling. Is this really happening? Do not dis...

“We close the divide because we know to put our future first; we must first put our differences aside. We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another, we seek harm to none and harmony for all.”- Amanda Gorman- National Youth Poet Laureate. Since the murder of 19 fourth grade students and their 2 teachers in their classroom on May 24th at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde Texas many of us have been pondering about the issue of gun control legislation and the value of life. Mass shootings have become commonplace in the United States of America. Some have argued that regular mass shootings are a uniquely American phenomenon. According to Jason R. Silva, an assistant professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at William Paterson University, the USA is the only developed country where mass shootings have happened every single year for the past 20 years. After each mass shooting in the USA the same script is used and this has become too familiar “our hearts and prayers are ...