Tag: africa

Media Veterans Honoured

 PAJ President Dashan Hendricks at the PAJ Veterans Awards hosted by Campari-Wray & Nephew.
 

We gathered at Wray and Nephew in New Kingston for the Press Association’s Annual Media Veterans Awards. It was with some measure of dismay that I discovered that my younger colleagues, Simone Clarke, Marline Stephenson Dalley, Pete Sankey, Milton Walker and Rudolph Brown were now being honoured as veterans. Kingsley “Super T” Tomlinson from St. James was represented by Giovanni Dennis. Citations revealed their sometimes dangerous assignments, their ascent as media professionals and their steadfast integrity.

The short slogan for this year’s Journalism Week speaks volumes for our times: ‘Truth, Always’. With misleading AI videos, mischief-makers posting libelous remarks, hiding behind pseudonyms and the greasing of palms, truth is getting a battering. It is important to honour those who have always stood up for the truth.

Last Thursday, in association with UNICEF, journalists attended a timely workshop, “Ethical Reporting on Children”.

We await the Journalism Awards being presented after press time for this column. Congratulations to President Dashan Hendricks and his hardworking executive – it has been a successful Journalism Week.

Women’s Month

We have mixed emotions this Women’s Month. We grieve with the families who have lost their young children and a teenage son in tragic incidents. We take cold comfort from the conviction and sentencing of Jolyan Silvera who confessed to committing manslaughter, taking the precious life of his unarmed wife, Melissa – from the evidence, it smells more like cold-hearted murder.

We are looking forward to Professor Verene Sheperd’s distinguished lecture this afternoon on “Gender and Human Rights: The Role of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Violence.” Shepherd is Vice-Chair of the United Nations Committee dedicated to this subject. Prof Shepherd and Dalea Bean will launch their book, ‘Gender-Based Violence in the Caribbean: Historical Roots, Contemporary Continuities’ later this month.

The Food for the Poor Jamaica ladies gathered on Friday for a lively Women’s Day Tea organized by Marketing Manager Marsha Burrell Rose. It was a sweet reward for the diligent ladies who have been spending long, hard hours in their far-reaching hurricane relief programme.

Inspiring Dr Trevor Golding

As we listened to the tributes to Dr Trevor Golding at last week’s Thanksgiving Service, we heard the measure of a man whose generous embrace encircled family and friends and who was dedicated to excellence in his profession as a trailblazing radiologist. We appreciated that politics did not figure in his friendships as he had partnered with John Junor to create the popular ‘Paddington Posse’ and was a lifelong friend of Justice Patrick Robinson.

His brother, former Prime Minister Bruce Golding described the closeness of the three brothers as ‘three gungo peas in a pod’.  It is interesting that as we age, the sibling bond grows even stronger, so there is a deep sense of loss with their passing. Even in the brief camaraderie we had at a ‘Jazz and Blues’ evening, Hubie and I experienced the warmth of Dr. Golding and his wife Shirley, their kindness and conviviality. Deepest condolences to the family and friends of Dr. Trevor Golding. May his wonderful soul rest in peace.

The Price of Mental Slavery

Jean Lowrie-Chin

“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our minds.”

As we celebrate Marcus Garvey’s words made famous by Bob Marley, we ponder how, as we celebrate President Biden’s pardon of Jamaica’s first National Hero, we still have communities living under the whip of mental slavery, in the form of gangsters.

“They carry my son to the barber,” declared a community member who protested Police action against gangs in Spanish Town last week. Roads were blocked after an alleged gang leader was killed in a shootout with the Police. Our courageous JCF officers, supported by JDF soldiers were able to bring calm to Spanish Town in 24 hours. Their biggest enemy however is the mental slavery imposed on our poor and illiterate by these gangs, initially supported by politicians on both sides, now beyond their control and dictating to the most vulnerable among us.

One school principal said a student explained that he has to pretend to be tough when he returns from school to his gang-controlled community, or he would be a laughingstock. For decades, admirers of Garvey have been petitioning the Government to include Garvey’s teachings in the school curriculum: his messages of discipline, dignity, self-reliance, self-esteem. While we sympathise with PM Dr Andrew Holness as he pleads for peace, we ask again that we immerse our children in Garvey’s philosophy so these values can be foundational in their formation.

Ken Jones curated Marcus Garvey’s quotes, presenting them under various headings in his book, “Marcus Garvey Said ….”  That book should be required reading for every Jamaican high school student. Garvey was a voracious reader. We have fine librarians in every parish of Jamaica, ready to guide our children in skilled reading. My love of literature started at the Savanna-la-mar Library where our shopkeeper mother would send my sister and me regularly. Librarian Miss Ottey would make reading exciting. When my mother remarried and we were leaving for Kingston, Miss Ottey invited her two little fans (seven- and nine-year-old) to dinner, so close we had become.

Our libraries are free and welcoming. Could our MPs please encourage their inner-city constituents to send their children to the library and sponsor reading competitions for them. This is a national emergency and as Education Minister Dr Dana Morris-Dixon explains, it is a challenge for every single Jamaican. However, we elect our leaders to lead. The invective coming out of tribalists on social media calls for better monitoring. What kind of example are we setting for our young people when they see actual vulgar words being  used in these posts? Garvey used no curse words yet became the leader of millions in the Jamaican and African Diaspora.