Jamaica Observer column published 26 October 2020
by Jean Lowrie-Chin
Taneka McKoy Phipps
We know the old saying, “If it bleeds, it leads” but
look at the outpouring of love and support for Taneka McKoy Phipps, who first
came to attention via a UNICEF Jamaica video on social media. The dedicated
teacher said she noticed children playing in the street in her Kingston
community though they would have been in school in normal times. She figured
that their parents may not have had connectivity and decided that she would
create ‘community blackboards’ on
various walls. Every weekday morning, she and assistants write up lessons on
the walls.
 |
Children copying work from a community blackboard
(screen grabs from UNICEF Jamaica video) |
The video shows parents taking photos of the wall, and
children copying the lessons in their exercise books. Mainstream media picked
up the video, featuring Mrs McKoy Phipps, resulting in significant offers of
assistance to the dedicated teacher.
There was a similar response to Keron King, Principal of the Little Bay
Primary School who rode around on his bike to deliver worksheets to his
students as they prepared for GSAT.
We have extraordinary teachers in this country, some
who take up the role of parenting in cases when they discover incidents of
child abuse. We hear many of those stories from successful Jamaicans who
remember that one teacher who believed in them when even their family members
were talking them down.
Several of our brilliant teachers have been doing the
same abroad and I am proud that my
Convent of Mercy ‘Alpha’ classmate Dr Denise Aloma (formerly Wehby) was
recently honoured by the South Florida Business Journal with the “Power Leader
In Education” Award. A teacher of nearly 50 years, Denise taught at her Alma
Mater before moving to South Florida where she served as teacher, Vice
Principal and Principal since 2014 of the St Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort
Lauderdale.
Here and abroad, we hear stressed out parents
recognising the effort and care required to instruct children as they struggle
with Covid induced virtual learning. We are also realising how poverty can keep
our children in a cycle of desperation. We welcome the Government’s plan to
install broadband islandwide, and the free-to-air programming offered by our
television stations. There is also that age-old invention called the book – let
us get our children reading more and become the best allies of their teachers. That
alliance should include monitoring our children so they do not Google their way
through homework. Remember, there is no quick fix to developing critical
thinking and that is central to their future success.
Heritage Week Celebration
We met a brilliant Jamaican via a virtual session last
week – Mrs Ann-Marie Howard-Brown, Senior Archaeologist and Curator at the
Jamaica National Heritage Trust (JNHT). She was Guest Speaker at a National
Heritage Week Celebration organised by IGT for students at their After-School
Advantage Programme centres at various homes islandwide.
Mrs Howard-Brown introduced us to the well-ordered
society of Jamaica’s first inhabitants, the Tainos, whose history here was
traced back to 650 AD. She noted that with their structure of government and
their inventions, these were civilised people and therefore it was not Columbus
who ‘civilised’ us. Indeed, she dubbed Christopher Columbus ‘Jamaica’s first
tourist’.
We learned that they used the Lignum Vitae for
medicinal purposes, and to create large canoes accommodating up to 50 persons
that sailed to various Caribbean islands – cruises of olden days. ‘Tainos were
biochemists’ she averred, as she described how they extracted the poisonous
juices from the bitter cassava with well-designed devices, producing an edible
staple.
Debbie Green, IGT Jamaica General Manager commented on
Mrs Howard-Brown’s riveting style. Indeed, she held us with her passion for the
subject and her sense of humour. We have a national treasure there at JNHT.
Outbreaks and Care Homes
Just when we felt there was a levelling of Covid
Cases, we got the grim news that there was an outbreak of the disease at the
Golden Age Home in Kingston and at the Mustard Seed Community’s Jerusalem Home
in St. Catherine. Both residents and staff were affected and there are
complaints of the carelessness of some Jamaicans who have come from abroad and
are not observing health protocols. Imagine, they are stooping as low as
bribing officials at our airports to not install the monitoring app on their
phones.
Further, since last June, long before Covid, the CCRP
seniors advocacy organisation has been calling for closer inspection of our
care homes. There was a report of gross
neglect at a home in Portmore and when we investigated, we discovered that
there were only two inspectors assigned by the Ministry of Health and Wellness
to oversee care homes in the entire island.
In last week’s press briefing, Health Minister Dr
Christopher Tufton said he would be recruiting more health inspectors, but in
the meanwhile, may we suggest that the very competent staffers at the National
Council for Senior Citizens (NCSC) be authorised to make comprehensive tours of
these homes. The NCSC has offices in every parish and they do visit homes but
are prevented to go beyond certain areas by the operators of these homes. Until
the Ministry can have adequate personnel in place, we are asking that they
prepare inspection guidelines for the NCSC and grant them full access to care
homes.
Rains bring tragedy and damage
The recent heavy rains resulted in a landslide at
Shooters Hill in St Thomas, taking the lives of Romeo Leachman, and his
15-year-old daughter Sanique, a promising fourth former at Queen’s High School.
Those of us who have been involved in construction
projects know the various agencies from which we must get approvals before we
can start. Why then are the authorities allowing so many houses to be built in
some of the most dangerous locations? Our over 200 parish councillors should be
tasked with touring their communities and reporting on dangerous start-ups.
Then there is the issue of the extensive damage to our roadways, including some
recently built. This begs the question as to how well they were constructed in
the first place.
As usual, we saw piles of plastic bottles in the
garbage washed up on streets and in gullies. Do Jamaicans know that our tap
water is safe? If you believe something may be wrong after a weather incident,
just a few drops of bleach can make it perfectly drinkable. I remember an
American embassy staffer Joshua Polacheck noting that he never bought bottled
water here, as Jamaica has great tasting tap water. We should stock up on bottled
water for emergencies but in normal times, just refill your reusable bottles
and give the gullies a break.
Photo captions
Children copying work from a
community blackboard
(screen grabs from UNICEF Jamaica
video)
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