Friday, June 26, 2020

Farewell Mary Alison Anderson McLean



Excerpt for Jamaica Observer column published June 22 2020
by Jean Lowrie-Chin 

“What a strong woman,” I remember remarking when I saw Mary Alison Anderson McLean in a television newscast, standing up for Jamaica’s children as head of the then Childcare & Protection Agency. Professional and passionate, this woman of excellence also served as Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Culture, Entertainment and Sport, and was the Caribbean Representative for UN Women at the time of her passing.

“She was recognised and highly respected for her fearless advocacy for human rights and environmental stewardship. She blazed an unrivalled trail of activism and her unbridled passion for good corporate governance has been exemplified by many here in Jamaica as well as the wider Caribbean region,” Minister Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange noted. “I hail her contribution as a true gender champion.”

The tributes have been sorrowful and inspiring; we give thanks for the exemplary life of Mrs Anderson McLean. Our condolences to her family, close friends and colleagues. May her soul rest in peace.

Monday, June 15, 2020

A time to mourn, a time to heal

Observer photo of distressed colleagues on the scene of the attack 


Jamaica Observer column published Monday 15 June 2020

by Jean Lowrie-Chin

It is a time of mourning in our beloved Jamaica as we contemplate the tragic deaths of Detective Corporal Dane Biggs and Constable Decardo Hylton, and the critical state of their colleagues Superintendent Leon Clunis and other unnamed officers after they were attacked during police operations last Friday.  Their safety vests were pierced by bullets from a high-powered M-16 weapon. Even as they put their lives on the line for their fellow Jamaicans, we see more headlines against than for our security forces, never mind that they are out there on our mean streets protecting our lives from the over 200 gangs identified by our Ministry of National Security.

How many people know that the largest youth club in Jamaica is the Police Youth Club, where our police officers mentor young people in troubled communities? How many know that the most ardent supporters of Jamaica's Special Olympics organisation are the members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force who have been holding the Law Enforcement Torch Run for decades to raise funds for the cause?  One police officer has been growing melons at his farm in St. Elizabeth to raise funds exclusively for our Special Olympians.  To see these imposing officers gently interact with our special needs sisters and brothers would bring tears to your eyes.

While we are trying to readjust to the nine-to-five routine post-Covid, our Police Officers have had no stay-at-home orders as they have to be on our roads morning and night, enforcing quarantines, manning SOE posts and monitoring crazy road use.

Sgt Jerr-Johnson contacted the CCRP seniors team for care packages for the shut-in elderly in Central Kingston because she had been visiting them and could see their suffering.  This resulted in our partnering with her and Inspector Natalie Palmer-Mair to have care packages distributed islandwide to the indigent elderly. When they shared with us photographs of their officers, kindly comforting the elderly as they distributed the packages, we gave thanks for the big hearts of the JCF.

Most of the members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force are among Jamaica's finest citizens. When it comes to discipline, sacrifice and deportment most of us do not even come close to them, yet too many of us unconsciously buy into the negative narrative which may very well be pushed by intimidating gangsters.

When ACP Steve McGregor was voted Police Officer of the Year in 2000, he gave me one of the most inspiring interviews. He was then a Deputy Superintendent of Police, serving in the troubled Rockfort area, and related that he would attend as many parties and community events as he could, engaging the youth through the area's very active Police Youth Club.  He said that as the former gang recruits warmed up to his positive messages, they told him that they had buried their guns and were ready to turn their lives around.  When he received his award, he dedicated it to his three children; last month his daughter, a Campion College alumna, graduated Magna cum laude from the University of Tampa.

As we mourn with the families of DC Biggs and Constable Hylton, and members of the JCF, let us find ways to give more support to these brave Jamaicans who continue to serve, protect and reassure despite the brickbats we hurl at them. We have been praising the Government response to the Covid pandemic.  Now we need the same focus and application by all ministries to end this, the deadliest virus in Jamaica: crime.

The Noel Chambers tragedy

We discovered last week that 81-year-old Noel Chambers died in prison after languishing there for 40 years without going to trial. Authorities said he had a mental illness.  His family described their fruitless efforts to have their loved one released over the years. The horrific photograph of his emaciated dead body should shake us into action. The Chief Justice issued an apology to the family and pledged to address such cases. Further we learned that there were dozens of children in prisons for such offences as bedwetting and wandering in the streets.  This is another unacceptable situation which we hope the Child and Family Protection Agency will correct.

Going to America

In the series "Where do we go from here?" hosted on all the Discovery Channels last week, a participant disclosed that the systemic racism in the US has visited unimaginable stress on African Americans.

Well we had a taste of it two years ago when our son decided to attend his cousin's graduation in the US.  We had read about the cold-blooded murders of Philando Castile and Eric Garner, and realised that black men were being killed simply because of their colour. I discussed the matter with my sister who promised that our son would never be alone on his trip. Despite this, I did not have a good night's sleep for the nine days he was away. Now if I could have been so affected for nine days, the level of stress experienced by the families of black men, day after day, year after year must be through the roof.  

Like so many in the US, we are a multi-racial family, and the white Americans we see marching have black husbands, wives, children and close friends – they hurt for their loved ones. With so many whites protesting, the NFL and Nascar are seeing their ticket sales in jeopardy and are apologizing belatedly. But, as Rev Al Sharpton noted at the funeral of George Floyd, until Colin Kaepernick gets his contract back, the NFL should not be absolved.

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day

Today is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day and right here in Jamaica, we have heartbreaking incidents.  Two weeks ago, CCRP had to report on abuse in a nursing home to the authorities. The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes 5 types of elder abuse: physical, sexual, financial, psychological abuse and neglect.

In Jamaica, where persons 60 years and older now constitute 11.3 percent of the population and are projected to constitute 25 percent by 2050, swift action must be taken to protect them. Adult children of senior citizens who can financially support their parents are mandated by the Maintenance Act of December 7, 2005 (article 5) to care for their parents and grandparents. However, many neglect their responsibility.

 

CCRP is calling for the introduction of an "Elder Care & Protection Act" that would mirror the Child Care & Protection Act to ensure that the nation's seniors are fully protected by law. We are urging citizens to take the best care of their elderly loved ones and community members and to report any cases of elder abuse to the National Council for Senior Citizens Hotline 888-SENIORS (736-4677).

 

Tuesday, June 2, 2020

We will stay the course for Hon Shahine Robinson

Excerpt from Jamaica Observer column published 1 June 2020
by Jean Lowrie-Chin

Hon Shahine Robinson MP

There is an outpouring of love and grief at the passing of Minister of Labour and Social Security Shahine Robinson as Jamaicans of both political parties and all walks of life, recall her selfless dedication to her constituency in St. Ann, the parish of her birth and to her country. Last year she joined us in St. Ann for the launch of the CCRP North East Jamaica Chapter, and called for the protection and empowerment of our seniors, reflected in her Ministry's meticulous revision of Jamaica's National Policy for Seniors. She was a strong supporter of the special needs community, and has been lauded by Caribbean Special Olympics head Lorna Bell, for her care and concern.  
Two years ago, pensioner Veronica Carnegie wrote a letter to the editor, after her favourite Minister was not nominated in a popularity poll, stating, "The Minister [Shahine Robinson] works quietly and well with a dependable staff; without bugle, trumpet and fanfare. She has no PR consultants advertising and marketing her activities and so this noise-less worker is not nominated. Look at the hundreds of workers who have been trained and placed in jobs; locally and overseas, over the two years. Look at the hundreds of pensioners, like us, whose lodgement is made, on time, every month. An Immaculate Conception High School old girl, and daughter of community conscious Fakhourie family, the minister knows how to work hard and get things done without fanfare." 
Minister Robinson sent her team to work with CCRP on laying the groundwork for an Elder Care and Protection Act. We will stay the course and celebrate her contribution when it becomes law. Our condolences to her beloved family, government and ministry colleagues and constituents. Rest in Peace gracious patriot, Shahine Robinson.

Monday, June 1, 2020

Our wounded human family

Observer column published 1 June 2020
by Jean Lowrie-Chin
As one reporter put it, "You cannot 'unsee'" the image of that brutal officer, with his knee on the neck of unarmed, handcuffed George Floyd; it is a sickening memory of US Memorial Day 2020 in Minneapolis. For nearly nine minutes, the policeman stayed in that position, one hand casually in his pocket, while his captive suffocated. "I can't breathe", pleaded Floyd.
This was the flashpoint for a country already in crisis with the Covid-19 pandemic clocking the highest number of deaths of any country – over 100,000 – and unemployment claims rising to over 40 million, disproportionately affecting people of colour. With long food lines and workers ordered to function in unhygienic meat-packing facilities, despair was growing.
On February 23, a young Black jogger, Ahmaud Arbery was shot dead for 'jogging while Black'. It was after days of protests that a father and son, captured on video, was charged for the crime. On March 15, Breonna Taylor of Louisville Kentucky, returned home from work at a neighbourhood hospital where she was an ER technician, and at 12.40am, police officers entered her home with a "no-knock" warrant and shot her to death. She was struck eight times; afterwards it was reported that she was not the target of the operation and no drugs were found in her apartment.
On Memorial Day morning, a Black professional Christian Cooper discovered that it was also dangerous to 'birdwatch while Black'. While enjoying his hobby in Central Park, New York, he asked Amy 'Karen' Cooper (no relation) to put a leash on her dog, a legal requirement in the park. The woman fumed and, while he videotaped her, called the police, pretending she was being attacked by Cooper, and asked them to arrest him. Christian Cooper, a Harvard graduate posted the video which quickly became viral, and after generously accepting the woman's apology, he spoke of an "underlying current of racism and racial perceptions that's been going on for centuries and that permeates this city and this country that she tapped into."
While that video was making the rounds last Monday, up popped the heart-stopping video of the modern-day lynching of George Floyd. The hashtag #icantbreathe trended worldwide, recalling the death of New York sidewalk vendor Eric Garner, who cried out the same words as he was pinned to the ground by a lawman in 2014.
In the days that followed, the anguish of Americans of all races spilled over onto the streets of some 30 cities including Minneapolis, Atlanta, Kentucky, Los Angeles, Houston, Brooklyn, Chicago and Washington DC. Some demonstrations turned violent, and there are allegations that the peaceful protests were infiltrated by a cynical group of mischief makers.
Jamaican Professor of sociology and novelist Orlando Patterson was a guest on Lawrence O'Donnell's MSNBC programme on Friday. He opined that the system of policing in the US employs "the use of violence as a first resort rather than a last resort. It sees the community as the enemy and killing as routine. It is worse than hate crime, this normalcy of killing." He regards the riots as "the final expression of outrage, the fact that one's humanity is not being recognised."
"America has changed for the better to a considerable degree," he noted. "However, something is fundamentally wrong with American police training, police culture, police organisation which has to change. Until it does black lives will not matter."
Our Jamaican security forces are doing better in this regard, but only this week there has been an outcry against the killing of Susan Bogle, a resident of August Town, allegedly by a member of the Jamaica Defence Force. As we look back on the Tivoli Gardens operation ten years ago, we can sympathise with the bereaved families, many innocently caught up in that dangerous standoff as the security forces went in search of 'Dudus' Coke.
Our human family needs healing – and this will come when everyone, of every class and colour, receives the respect and justice that we all deserve.
A strange kind of racism
"Wrong and strong" is how my Twitter friend Londie Murray describes the vitriol spewed at him after he spoke about the kindness of Sandals President Adam Stewart.  It seems that the US riots has triggered irrational anti-white sentiment in Jamaica, with one post declaring that descendants of estate owners are running Jamaica. To be clear, Adam's Dad, Butch Stewart is not a descendant of planters, and had a humble start in life.
I responded  with a post that the owner of Jamaica's biggest bank, Michael Lee-Chin, is the son of an orphan, that the owner of Carimed and Kirk Industries, Glen Christian started out as a postman and that the Hendricksons started with one small bakery in Magotty.
We should treasure our Motto "Out of Many One People" (the Latin translation is the US Motto – E Pluribus Unum) and recognise that with all our problems, Jamaica remains the most racially harmonious country in the world, where colour is no obstacle to success. When Glen Christian delivered letters to Colgate-Palmolive on Marcus Garvey Drive, he had a much higher vision for himself. As he studied and worked, he was able to buy that very building and is now the distributor of that company's products.
We must never forget the past but let us use it for motivation: "None but ourselves can free our minds."