October has been a month of great loss. 

If there's one thing working in the NGO (non-government organization) world has taught me, it's empathy.

I have worked in HIV prevention, treatment, care and support for a number of years. Through this experience I realised how compounding issues and intersecting vulnerabilities can inadvertently disadvantage people.

Let's talk !

I have wanted to write about this for a while. I am unsure of why it took me this long to write about it, but here we go...

This word had almost become a bad word... Something that's absolutely horrible and we should just shut up our dirty mouths about it.

rape 1 noun 1.  the   unlawful   compelling   of   a   person   through   physical   force   or   duress   to  have   sexual intercourse. 2. any   act   of   sexual   intercourse   that   is   forced   upon   a   person. 3. statutory rape . 4. an   act   of   plunder,   violent   seizure,   or   abuse;   despoliation;   violation: the   rape   of   the   countryside. 5. Archaic.   the   act   of   seizing   and   carrying   off   by   force. verb   (used   with   object) ,  raped,   raping. 6. to   force   to   have   sexual   intercourse. 7. to   plunder   (a   place);   despoil. 8. to   seize,   take,   or   carry   off   by   force. ver...

Nobody could say anything about Portia Simpson-Miller. She was the only Jamaican woman  I grew up seeing in Parliament and this spoke volumes to me. Although I was too young to be "keen on politics"  I followed her life closely and ofcourse I was the first one in front of the TV to witness her marriage to the most honourable, Errald Miller. The People's National Party was in power for most of my life and that's the political group I was familiar with. When the most honourable Portia Lucretia Simpson-Miller was named  the first female prime minister of Jamaica in 2006 ofcourse I was ecstatic . Not only did my girl Portia make it to the top of the lower house of Parliament after so many years in politics, but this meant that certain strides would have been made for women.

The above is a disclaimer, so if you're whispering 'WTF' to yourself after reading this, then don't say I didn't warn you. A matter that has been of particular interest to me came up in some discussions recently. The news report stated that the NDM - National Democratic Movement (who nobody even remember existed) was criticizing the government for rumours the executive members heard about the provision of condoms in prison. 

video clip included  I was a regular "news watcher" until the news got a little too morbid, a little too sad, a little too depressing for me. I now proudly rely on hear seh  and Twitter (and perhaps Facebook) for most of  my current affairs. On July 21 (Monday), I saw someone tweeting about Portia (that should be the most Hon. Portia Simpson-Miller, Prime Minister of Jamaica ... but we've lost quite a bit of respect for her, so a few words have been dropped off) going to bed hungry. Now imagine my shock, awe and dismay - how could the Prime Minister, aka the FLY Minister (nickname given to her due to the frequency with which she travels) be going to bed hungry. Flabbergasted I asked my Twtter timeline what was happening and my trusty friend, Dale, shared with me that our Prime Minister in fact uttered that sometimes she goes to bed hungry in a news clip.

I'm sure you've thought about it. Globalization is no longer that chapter in your text book. Constantly regurgitating the definition of globalization and imagining the concept. Listening to your teachers as they explained the future - the globalized future. It seemed like it would take forever. It seemed like globalization was such a long process it would take some time (make that ALOT of time) before we saw some of the extremes this crazy teacher was talking about.

Ladies. Let me speak to you for a minute... Image received from Huffington Post If you've ever walked the streets of Jamaica you may have heard the phrase which is the subject of this blog post. Depending on where you're from you may hear different variations of it:

"Doan put your sweety there... dem will tief it" she said, and I remember it like it was yesterday. It's been almost two decades that she said these words to me and perhaps 7 years since she passed away peacefully at the Kingston Public Hospital. She embodied strength...grace...and at times she personified happiness. Always greeted you with a smile, despite her numerous challenges, her failing health and her hair falling out in clumps. Struggling to make it up the hill to work after enduring painful hours of chemotherapy the night before.

Scamming has become a HUGE problem in Jamaica, and when I say HUGE I mean HUGE. We haven't received so much [negative] international  attention in quite some time (ye, let's not count the Dudus Saga). But when CNN and BCC do 'special' stories on scamming in the island, it may just be a problem. 

How many buildings in Jamaica are wheel chair accessible? How many intersections allow for the passage of blind pedestrians? Are the sidewalks kept in good condition to facilitate wheel chairs, blind and other disabled persons?

Marry Christmas and Happy New Year !!! (I said Happy New Year to someone yesterday and they informed me that the year is now too old to continue using that greeting... but HAPPY NEW YEAR anyway ) I hope everyone's holiday season was wonderful :) ... Now sometime ago I promised that I would review the 50 shades of Grey trilogy, and although it took me quite some time to read the three books in between work, school and a genuine disinterest, I was done in enough time to have published the post long before the end of last year, I guess a bit of laziness and not knowing where to start took over... But anyway here goes...

I was idly "googling" myself and realized that an article I had written for the UN Chronicle magazine two years ago, for a competition, was actually published although I did not win the contest. CLICK HERE    to see the article in all its glory... I am so happy I could burst lol, I have also copied and pasted the contents here ... Happy reading...

Jamaica is 50 this year, boy if you missed that you must have been in a coma for more than a year, because the buzz surrounding our half -a- century anniversary has been nothing less than CONSTANT.

Now, we all know that Jamaica has the most churches per square mile [ funny enough I was looking for the source of this "fact" and all the websites stated the Guinness Book of World Records as the source but there was no trace of it on their website...] and people are very sensitive about religion, generally... So I know this blog post may cause some amount of controversy, but these things need to be said. For the purposes of this post "religion" and "church lessons" will refer to Christianity and its teachings as declared by some denominations.

 Did you miss me? Let's hope so... I was having an intellectual conversation with a group of intelligent graduates recently (bear with me as I create the scenario) and we were discussing the issue of social class in Jamaica and whether  identity is a product of social class or if it is an independent entity. In arguing either point of view the factor of perception came in: whether the person wants be perceived as the class they belong to or another group. Let's look at how all this affects....  di loose hole gyal . Social Class refers to a certain stratification within society where its members share common characteristics: be it in concepts about political, economic and social structures, be it colour... whatever it may be... they have some common characteristics. Identity is defined as a person's conception and expression of their individuality or group affiliations (eg: cultural identity). We see then that identity is a fully  SUBJECTIVE phenomenon. Need ...