Jamaican Bolt sets world record in 100 meters

Jamaican Bolt sets world record in 100 meters

By EDDIE PELLS – 7 minutes ago
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Like lightning out of nowhere, Usain Bolt is now the world's fastest man. The Jamaican sprinter, who doesn't even consider the 100 meters his best race, set the world record Saturday night with a time of 9.72 seconds at the Reebok Grand Prix, .02 seconds faster than the old record held by his countryman, Asafa Powell.

Bolt was using the 100 for "speed work" and to avoid having to run the more grueling 400, when, suddenly, he ran the world's second-fastest time a few weeks ago at 9.76. Even then, he said he wasn't sure if he would give up the 400 meters for the 100 for the Beijing Olympics.

Hard to imagine he has any choice now.

Springing from the starting block and unfurling his lanky frame — listed at 6-foot-4, but probably more like 6-5 and, either way, considered too tall for this kind of speed work — he created a big-time gap between himself and Tyson Gay at about the halfway point, then routed him to the finish line.

"I wasn't really looking for a world record, but it was there for the taking," Bolt said.

Gay, the best sprinter in America, finished in 9.85.

Within moments of crossing the finish line, the 21-year-old from Kingston was hoisting the Jamaican flag and a crowd with hundreds of Jamaican fans was going wild.

"Just coming here, knowing a lot of Jamaicans were here giving me their support, it meant a lot," Bolt said. "I just wanted to give them what they wanted."

But who could have expected this?

Bolt has long been considered one of his country's top, up-and-coming sprinters, but his height and running style seemed to make him much more fit for the 200, his favorite race, and the 400, which he doesn't love as much.

Like so many who compete in the 100, Bolt had lots of work to do with his push out of the blocks. He doesn't consider himself a true pro at that. And after a bad false start by the field — the second gun didn't go off until the runners were 20 meters down the track — this simply didn't seem like a night for world records.

Or was it?

"I was glad for the first false start," Bolt said. "My first start wasn't that good. I knew if I got Tyson on the start, I'd get him."

Gay said he knew it was over after he saw Bolt push out.

"Obviously, I have some work to do," Gay said. "Right now, it's hats off to Bolt. Today was his day."

"An awesome athlete," said Shawn Crawford, who finished sixth and witnessed history from two lanes inside of Bolt. "The time shows it."

This marked the first time the record had been set in the United States since the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, when Donovan Bailey ran a 9.84.

A lot is often said about Olympic trials in the United States — that given the depth of the roster, it can be an even better meet than the actual Olympics. But the highlight of the pre-Olympic calendar could now be Jamaican nationals at the end of June, when Bolt and Powell should square off. Powell, who set the mark of 9.74 last September in Italy, is overcoming a chest injury but is expected to be healthy soon.

Also at Jamaican nationals will be Veronica Campbell-Brown, who won the women's 100 on Saturday in 10.91, the fastest time of 2008.

The fastest time ever, though, now belongs to Bolt, and it made a prophet out of Gay, who predicted that with himself, Bolt and Powell lining up against each other over these next few months, the record could go down, down, down.

The conditions were right.

The start of the meet was delayed by an hour because of threatening storms in the area. Then, about halfway through, a brief thunderstorm hit, cooling the track and leaving it with just the faintest sheen of glistening moisture before the last, and most-anticipated, race of the night. The tailwind was measured at 1.7 meters-per-second, .3 under the limit at which a record can be set.

"To be honest, I knew the track was fast," Gay said. "I knew a 9.7 was possible."

After his victory, Bolt paraded around with the Jamaican flag, accepted a hug from Gay, then went off to do interviews. Race organizers, knowing they'd get a big Jamaican fanbase out at Icahn Stadium on Randall's Island, had scheduled a post-meet reggae concert for the crowd of about 6,000.

And what a perfect choice that was on this history making night.

Hamming's analysis of Nobel Laureates

FROM An opportunity for greatness Jamaica Observer - Monday, May 22, 2006

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/html/
20060521T220000-0500_105107
_OBS_AN_OPPORTUNITY_FOR_GREATNESS.asp

Canadian educator Dr Richard Marceau said it was the mentorship of the late famous mathematician Richard Hamming that spurred him to focus and achieve.

Hamming had analysed the approach of Nobel Laureates throughout the years, and had concluded that there were eight lessons we could learn from them:

(1) Plan your future. When you are going on a journey, the first thing you need is a map to ensure that you are going in the right direction.

(2) Do what you love. The combination of intellect, motivation and passion, is powerful.

(3) Give yourself a clear agenda. Have specific goals to work towards. However, do not spend your whole life preparing.

(4) Seek knowledge and know-how. Just as with steady saving, and compounding modest interest, you could double your money in 10 years, think how much you would know if you sought to learn 10 per cent more than the next person each year.

(5) Invest your time wisely. Choose your battles and have a strategy. If you hit the point of diminishing returns, find the courage to put the project aside. Tenacity and stubbornness are two sides of the same coin - the former is good, the latter counter-productive.

(6) Success requires courage, organisation and focus. Emotion, compassion, judgement and intuition are all important factors.

(7) Practise your creativity. Think thoughts no one has thought before. When faced with a problem, before rushing to an adviser or the internet, force yourself to draw on your knowledge and experience to come up with a solution.

(8) To do great things, you have to work on great problems. Don't waste your time on doing just what everybody else is doing. We have conquered many diseases because our scientists looked where no one else had gone before.

Claim Reggae for Prosperity

http://www.jamaicans.com/music/reggae_prosperity.htm

'Your Son Too' (for Lee Boyd Malvo)

http://www.africaresource.com/proudflesh/issue4/lowrie-chin.html

Your Son too (for Lee Boyd Malvo)
by Jean Lowrie-Chin

(Band: Kumbaya Lord, Kumbaya
Kumbaya Lord, Kumbaya - Continues to play under poem)

Who that yu say?
Pastor Johnson come to pray?
That cold-heart man jus’ full o’ chat
Tell him to go away!

Who that now?
Miss Brown? Toppa-top lady in the town?
Say she sorry for mi?
But she sorry late
After she help seal mi pickney fate.

When I find meself pregnant
I get confuse
Pastor say I have no excuse
Beg a kotch for mi baby, Miss Brown refuse
Oh Lord, Kumbaya!

I send mi pickney from pillar to post
Everything I work, him get the most
Teacher say him bright
Get everything right
Oh Lord, Kumbaya

Mi boy getting bigger
I try get visa
They turn me down,
So is back with Miss Brown
Then mi good fren’ whisper
'No visa for Antigua'
Oh Lord, Kumbaya.

Man nice caan done!
Treat mi chile like a son
Mi boy get a father
To take him to America!
Oh Lord, Kumbaya

I hear bout sniper and pray for mi son
Lord, protect him from that wicked gun…
Oh God! The news reach me!
It buckle mi knee
Mi boy chain like slave
In the land of the free
Oh Lord, Kumbaya

Follow mi finger
Jamaica, Antigua, America
Look! is a hook!
And my son get jook!
Nerve gas soldier wreck him head
And now them say them want him dead!
Oh Lord! Kumbaya!

Miss Toppa-top, Missa Parson man
You can turn yu back
And wash yu hand
Blame mi for taking up wid man
But me and God know what is true
Lee Boyd Malvo is your son too!
(sung – Oh Lord, Kumbaya)

(c) Jean Lowrie-Chin

Father Holung - Bethlehem - Kingston, Jamaica

HOLUNG... life can be simple yet very rich

Monday, December 13, 2004
Jean Lowrie-Chin

It's Christmas, so let's visit "Bethlehem" - this one is at 36 Highholborn Street in downtown Kingston, where eight year-olds are still crib-sized. Oh little ones of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie, staring into space with beautiful eyes.

...
Next door is The Lord's Place, where HIV/AIDS patients sit in a dignified courtyard, nodding their welcome. Their serenity reflects the words of philosopher Teilhard de Chardin: "We are not human beings on a spiritual journey: we are spiritual beings on a human journey." Will we have to test positive before we become positively convinced?
...

A fit-looking Father HoLung (a year after heart surgery) comes out to greet me, and I remember the very first article I wrote as a rookie reporter for Clive Fung's "Pagoda" magazine. It was about a young scholastic named Richard HoLung, then studying to be a Jesuit and teaching at St George's College.

I ended up being a stagehand for his Jamaican version of Antoine de Saint Exupéry's "Little Prince" where he stayed true to its theme even as he blended it with Louise Bennett's poetry and Broadway songs.

"What is important is invisible to the eye," the Little Prince had declared, and I felt the fleeting fame of headliners evaporate in the quiet garden of the monastery. Father HoLung recounts the growth of his Order from three priests (including Trinidadian Father Hayden Augustine and Jamaican Father Brian Kerr) in 1981, to 328 today who serve hundreds here, in Haiti, the Philippines, Uganda and India.

...

I journey back to my dizzy day, but cannot forget the babies of Bethlehem. Nothing wrong with being busy, I remind myself, as long we are earning to help the helpless.

Ahead of their Time

The story of Alexander Bedward, movingly told in the play of the same name by Louis Marriott, is an allegory of the struggle of people of colour to take their rightful place in post-emancipation Jamaica. Bedward took the spiritual road, Garvey took the socio-economic path and Claude McKay chose a way through literature. They were all ahead of their time and they all died in obscurity.

Born in the 1840s, Bedward succeeded the American founder of the Jamaica Native Free Baptist Church, Shakespeare Woods. He was a charismatic leader, garnering the support of over 30,000 followers at the height of his popularity in August Town. He encouraged his members to grow their own food, and miraculous healings were recorded at the Hope River. Traditional churches started losing members to Bedward's movement, and the establishment closed in on him. He was overtaken by delusions of grandeur - the scenes of Bedward anxiously inquiring about Gleaner reports are still being replayed by succeeding generations of leaders. Bedward's absolute power at Union Camp created what may have been the first garrison in Jamaica, repelling the security forces when they tried to investigate a case of praedial larceny. His rapid descent begins when he fails to keep his promise to fly. He was committed to the Bellevue asylum where he died in 1930.

A good education brought Garvey and McKay a certain level of respect, but they could not eventually withstand the powerful establishment. After being deported from America on charges of "mail fraud", Garvey's growing following raised the eyebrows, as well as the hackles of the authorities in colonial Jamaica. He eventually migrated to England where he died broken-hearted in 1940.
The gentle-hearted McKay started out as a policeman but quit the rigors of the beat to become one of Jamaica's finest poets, colouring our childhood with memories of his "green hills of Jamaica", and awakening our consciousness with militant poetry. He was quoted by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and toasted in post-revolution Soviet Union where he shared the reviewing stand with Russia's leaders for their Labour Day Parade in May 1923.

But this sensitive, elegant Jamaican writer died in 1948 in a Chicago hospital, a devout convert to Catholicism and a humble teacher who had failed to earn from his much-praised work.

Every overworked, unappreciated individual can take comfort in the fact that succeeding generations have revived interest in the lives and work of these three remarkable men. In his book, Marcus Garvey Said… Ken Jones (who went to great lengths to put out this recent edition) quotes the late Martin Luther King Jr: "Marcus Garvey was the first man, on a mass scale, to give millions of Negroes a sense of dignity and destiny and make the Negro feel that he was somebody." Claude McKay's body of work continues to amaze and inspire generations of students worldwide.
It would be unfair to ignore the role of enlightened white folks in the struggle for equality. White clergy members of the Protestant Church and white abolitionists were in the forefront of the 19th centu ry movement for emancipation. McKay was befriended in his adolescence, by a Mr. Jekyll English gentleman who became his intellectual and literary mentor. In England, his friend Frank Harris promoted his poetry and arranged a private meeting for him with George Bernard Shaw.

By the 30s, white Jamaicans like Bustamante and Edna Manley put the establishment in a quandary, with Busta baring his chest and daring the security forces to "shoot me but let my people go" and Edna carving the powerful and poetic Negro Aroused.

Armed with the bravery and eloquence of his remarkable ancestors, Bob Marley, the son of a black Jamaican woman and a white Englishman, gave us Redemption Song, the anthem for a century of self-realization. But were it not for a white Jamaican with English roots, Chris Blackwell, Marley might also have died in obscurity.

This has been Jamaica's unique legacy: the bold assertion of self-worth, supported by all the races of the majority of her people. There may still be the few who would want to perpetuate their puzzling prejudice, but we are teaching the world great lessons about the strength of racial harmony.
In the name of those who have bequeathed our proud history, we should resist any inclination to devalue the efforts of our fellow Jamaicans.
-Jean Lowrie-Chin - 2004

David Hall's Ja experience

Observer column by Jean Lowrie-Chin


Monday, April 28, 2008


"Jamaicans are persuasive, creative and innovative - challenge them with a situation and they will solve any problem," said outgoing Digicel Jamaica CEO David Hall as he offered advice to prospective investors. "Don't be stuck on negative statistics. An economic and social system as dynamic and multilayered as Jamaica, demands that you seek information from various sources, and not just rely on official records." He urges those interested in Jamaica to visit the country and "feel the pulse of the nation".

David Hall did that long before he joined Digicel. As a young accountant with the Kirk Connell-owned business in Cayman in the 80s, he was a frequent visitor to neighbouring Jamaica and fell in love with our people, culture and landscape. It was a love inherited from his father Kevin Hall who had been visiting the country every year for 30 years as a representative of Waterford Crystal.

"My Dad developed a great friendship with Pokar Chandiram as well as George Fatta, and now Pokar's son, Anup is a good friend," smiles David. He recently disclosed that he will be making Jamaica his home base - he and his wife Liz had already bought a house here.

The warm-hearted, hard-driving Irishman developed his practical approach to life growing up in Ireland. "My parents insisted that we all go to university, studying whatever we wanted, as they considered the university experience as the important stepping stone more so than the course itself." His parents also insisted that they take summer jobs, so they would learn to put better value on money: "At 12 you got your first summer job and at 16 you worked abroad staying with family friends or relatives."

When he finally graduated from university in Ireland, David thought he had arrived. Not so. He was feeling quite spiffy in his new suit when he showed up for an accounting post at a Kerry group facility in Durham, England. The managing director invited David into his office, demanded his jacket and told him to return for it in six months. The bright graduate was unceremoniously dispatched to the fast-moving factory floor, decked out in a fluffy blue cap, white coat and rubber boots.
In the following months he operated machines, packed meats and learned the tough basics of the business.

"It was probably the greatest lesson I ever had," he says. "How can you manage someone if you don't understand their job? That's how you appreciate whether they are being efficient or not."

This was the beginning that made David Hall a quiet giant in corporate leadership. As a mentor, David has encouraged the 1,000-strong Digicel team to be determined in the face of obstacles: "Go over, under or around obstructions. Expect challenges, but meet them head-on. Have the confidence and be determined to overcome."

David takes no complaint lightly. "Have a passion for your customers and Jamaica," he advises, "both are your life bond and if treated right, will not let you down."
There are countless stories of David, hearing a complaint on the road, arriving at the office with his notes, making breathless calls and insisting that the sun must not set on the issue. Then David gives all the kudos to his team, reserving none for himself, so that many are not aware of his hands-on leadership.

"We have the hardest working staff in Jamaica," he says. "They have the world record for the pace at which they have rolled out networks, creating the biggest brand in the Caribbean." David says Digicel works as a "flat" organisation, allowing team members a measure of autonomy. "For fast progress, you have to trust people to take quick decisions. You may get some things wrong, but that's how you learn."

He mentioned individuals like Rohan Pottinger and Lesline Chisholm who have come up through the ranks. "Thanks to individuals like these pillars, the Jamaican operation is the most efficient of all 23 countries," he says.

But it's not easy getting cellphones into 1.9 million Jamaican pockets: "Like Seamus Lynch before me, I was married to the job," says David. "We average about 20 social functions per week plus long days at the office."

Monsignor Richard Albert,who got to know David when he attended Stella Maris, says, "David really took Digicel to new heights - I don't think a lot of people know how hard he has worked, how many people he won over to Digicel by sheer determination, and what a genuinely kind person he is."

In spite of the accolades, David, who will be moving up to the post of Digicel's North Caribbean ceo, says there is "nothing amazing" about the way he works. "Listen to your customers," he says. "We are customer-driven and David Hunter, my successor in Jamaica, thinks in the same vein."

Observing the achievements of the Jamaican team, deployed all over the world to spread "the Jamaican DNA" in all the company's networks, David has become even more passionate about better educational opportunities for young Jamaicans. He spearheaded a joint venture with HEART and the National Youth Service to train call-centre personnel and has been an enthusiastic supporter of the company's EMBA programme.

He is particulrly pleased with the educational projects supported by the Digicel Foundation. "Success is cyclical - the more you pass it on, the more it comes back to you," he says.

Buoyed by his positive Jamaican experience, David hopes that business interests "will keep on believing in Jamaica, and press forward with innovation and entrepreneurship". He has been deeply impressed by the Observer's Business Leader of the Year awards. "Bureaucracy and excessive administration are frustrating entrepreneurs where conditions in Jamaica make it very difficult to succeed. Therefore, when business people actually do make it, it really is an achievement. I salute Butch Stewart for these awards that celebrate their success."

Recalling the sea change in Irish business in the 80s, David said it taught him that "you can actually change a country's dynamics forever". He is convinced that no other Caribbean country is as endowed as Jamaica is. "You have attractions on your north coast and south coast, a strong culture, wonderful people and a superb climate. Jamaica is at a crossroads. It is important that the right decisions are made now as they will impact generations to come."
lowriechin@aim.com

No Visa Required

I am floating in the sea with my eyes closed. I am six years old again, on a school outing. I picture the tiny huts, no hotels, as we pick our way through the bushes to arrive at the pristine beach. Ahh, Negril. Nor winding road, nor snorting truck will keep me from her beaches. Negril is another country without the interminable airport security checks.

I lose myself in nostalgia on my way through Sav-la-mar. As we drive past Hendon Circle, I am always startled to see the petrol station where our church used to be. Glancing down Great George's Street, I remember the beloved library, the fountain where we posed for many childhood photos, and the little grocery shop where our newly widowed mother had eked out a living. We head to Negril via Lewis Street, looking wistfully at the few tall palms, remnants of the beautiful tree-lined driveway that led to our schoolhouse.

‘Talking up’ my Jamaica

Like a smitten girl bent on defending a scruffy boyfriend, I have written a restrained “State of the nation” speech to present to our Alpha Alumnae Toronto chapter. I know they get a steady diet of our scary headlines on the internet, but I want them to be aware also, that foreign direct investment has never been higher.

I will share with them excerpts from Prime Minister Bruce Golding’s enlightening and enlightened Budget presentation (his dear mother taught us at Alpha). His address has signaled that the government has taken a 360-degree view of our challenges, taking steps that should reduce mendicancy and promote sustainability. Relief for the poor, food production and processing, energy conservation and diversification, improving our tax reform, investment and job creation are well explored.

Contradicting the Opposition’s accusation that his Government does not have people “at the centre”, the PM citing his speedy introduction of free high school tuition and free health care, declared, “They are at the centre of our minds!” Whatever your party preference, it must have been heartening to hear his resolve to make education accessible to the poorest. “Education is the ladder that will enable poor people to escape from poverty,” he rightly observed, “and therefore we want to do something extra for those students who are registered under the (PATH) programme and who are at risk.” It was gratifying to read the stories of three such students, twins Venecia and Valecia Johnson and Rochelle Batten, who have excelled in the CSEC examinations.

But even as we congratulate the Government for these bold moves, we have to cry out against the escalating number of murdered and missing persons. There are countless crime plans and good intentions but the monster is gaining on us. Those of us who have remained steadfast even while our relatives left us in the dust during the 70s and 80s are asking, “When, O Lord, when?”

One prospective donor of a surveillance system for Montego Bay’s Hip Strip is about to withdraw his offer, because no one seems to be in any particular hurry to take it up. At a time when people are even afraid to make anonymous telephone calls, only technology and forensics can save us now. Crime Stop is a great programme, but it could do with a marketing makeover. Just as phone or beer companies continue to update even their wittiest campaigns, Crime Stop should be revamping its messages.
As we watch Americans rationing and hoarding rice, we realise that a food crisis is upon us. It was after 9/11, when we started to get blow-by-blow coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we saw the dusty, sandy environs of those countries that we realised how truly blessed Jamaica is. Prime Minister Golding’s idea to do a massive planting of fruit trees on Labour Day is a good one, because our fertile soil will certainly send them up quickly. He should know however, that there are many bearing fruit trees being cut down because of the unbearable vandalism that is occurring throughout the length and breadth of Jamaica.

Our nutritionists also have their work cut out for them, because although we are in the enviable position of being able to produce enough food for ourselves, we have spoiled our palates (and our health) by giving up the habits of our grandparents. The complex carbs so celebrated in the South Beach diet are our yams, cocos, dasheens and sweet potatoes, but our children have been weaned on rice and flour.

There is also the problem with all good ideas in this country: doing the work to ensure that they are properly executed. I remember a lady complaining that “where I am from, the problem is not food, the problem is money.” How will we convert that abundant food into money? The Agricultural Marketing Commission (AMC) of the seventies was a good idea, poorly executed. During that time, many were the tears of farmers, standing by the roadside, waiting in vain for a promised vehicle to arrive to collect their produce.

As we look at the global issues, we are hoping for a quick and smooth resolution to what some are calling a looming constitutional crisis in the dual-citizenship debacle. Politicians who put country ahead of self, will be the ones who will stand tall in the challenging months ahead.

We like to boast about how bright we are in this country, but it is only when brightness is translated into urgent, concerted action that we will make the change. Committees meet, decisions are made, but the action lists sit on desks or in inboxes for days on end. Depending on the company or ministry, lives or millions could be lost to Jamaica’s soon-come culture. Again, technology can assist in ensuring accountability and our software experts should be kept busy, creating programmes that will promote transparency in all our dealings. We are hearing that some of the complicated hoops that investors have been forced to jump through, were created by unscrupulous individuals bent on collecting “a bly”. Let’s use the technology to unmask them.

In the same spirit, we should not dismiss, but encourage the People’s National Party, celebrating 70 great years of service to Jamaica, to be a vocal and just Opposition. This is how we will keep each other honest. This weekend, therefore, I will face my friends in Canada bravely, and tell them that we are not giving up on cleaning up our diamond-in-the-rough Jamaica.

Congratulations: Heartiest congratulations to the heroines honoured by the Kiwanis Club of New Kingston last Thursday: Mrs Sarah Newland-Martin, courageous social worker and 1965 Jamaica Sportswoman of the Year; Sister Maureen Clare Hall, OSF, legendary and iconic retired Principal of the Immaculate Conception High School; Mrs Faye E.G. McIntosh, high-achieving Financial Director of the GraceKennedy Group and Dr Olivia “Peaches” McDonald, world-renowned family planning expert. They inspire us!

Vote for MaryKay – ABC News, in their “Picture of Health” competition, has nominated lifestyle coach, Jamaican MaryKay Mullally as one of five finalists. Please let Queen MaryKay reign – cast your vote before midnight May 31 at www.abcnewsnow.com/pictureofhealth.
Published – Jamaica Observer – 5 May 08

Sister Benedict’s love story

Sister Benedict (3rd left) celebrates with look-alike niece Wendy, sister Jean and brother-in-law Henry Williams.

Be at attention …or not. You are in the presence of royalty, but relax: she is as loving as she is regal. She is Sister Benedict Chung, the acknowledged queen of Central Kingston. But this is no figurehead on a throne. Oh no – there is too much to be done. At her Laws Street Trade Training Centre, there are bakers, caterers, garment makers to be trained, disputes to be resolved, the poor to be fed and a bonafide bakery to be run.

We gathered at the quaint Christ the King Chapel last week, to honour Sister Benedict for her 60 years of service as a Sister of Mercy. Strong of posture and clear of voice, she repeated the vows of poverty chastity and obedience that she had first pronounced as a 16-year-old in that very Chapel on South Camp Road on February 2, 1948. There have been several studies on the amazing lucidity and resilience of women who choose religious life, particularly those who enter the teaching profession. Going from classroom to bakery, to boardroom, Sister Benedict moves as seamlessly as a professional in her prime.

The Indian greeting ‘namaste’ means ‘the divine in me greets the divine in you’. Embracing God’s people, rich and poor, God’s divinity shines in her ready smile, lilting voice and boundless energy for helping everyone she encounters to realise to their potential. Canon Law expert Father Michael Lewis is one of the many she taught at Holy Family, and he never fails to remind us of her inspiring mentorship, referring to her as “my second Mother”.

She is so openly loving and non-judgmental, so supportive and affirming, that we are inspired and at times feel positively spoiled by her. Sister Benedict’s meals are the stuff of legend. The caterers trained at Sister Benedict’s Laws Street Trade Training Centre, know that only the best ingredients must be used, and that the presentation must always be first class. Who but Sister Benedict could create a twist to a traditional Jamaican fruit salad by topping it with morsels of tender, cool coconut jelly.

At Christmas, several uptowners join ‘Sister Benny’ and her fellow Mercy Sister Irene Chen See at Laws Street for their now famous Christmas Treat. Just as diligently as she prepares for the Centre’s corporate clients, so does she ensure that the meals served to the senior citizens are perfect, that the lights are brilliant and that the live band puts pep in every step. She teaches those of us assisting an important lesson: we are not helping these goodly folk as much as we are helping ourselves to discern the joy of service.

Time and time again, we hear people wondering aloud why this nun or that priest – attractive, intelligent, articulate, would choose a life of service over the prospect of a well-endowed home and corporate career. We owe them a debt: take from Jamaica Sister’s trade training centre, the Salvation Army, Father Gregory’s Mustard Seed, Father Holung’s Missionaries, Sandra and Henley Morgan’s ministry, Bishop Blair’s outreach, and think what we would be left with. Dr Parris Lyew Ayee at UWI has shown us a direct correlation beween the number of schools and churches in a community and the level of crime.

The legendary Sister Mary Bernadette, in her nearly completed grande oeuvre on Alpha, has devoted an entire chapter Sister Mary Benedict O.D., quoting tributes from Sir Howard Cooke, late Prime Minister Michael Manley, Food for the Poor and Professor Errol Miller.

The goodly Professor of Education wrote about Sister Benedict’s leadership as Principal of the Holy Family Primary School, in an article published in the Gleaner in 1996, headlined A Giant in the Ghetto. “Anger, animosity and aggression were the definitive features of the environment in which this Chinese-Jamaican disciple of the church sought to keep school for mostly Afro-Jamaican children,” Prof. Miller observed. After Sister Benedict established generous feeding and health programmes, he remarked on the warm relationship that developed with the community matched by soaring academic achievements.

In his tribute for her 25th Anniversary as a nun, late Prime Minister Michael Manley wrote: “Sister Benedict is one of those rare human beings whose lives exemplify their Christianity … By her every action she proves every hour and every day that she does love her neighbour as she does herself.”

Manley credits Sister Benedict with “the great breakthrough that was made in my constituency when the two rival gangs were persuaded to stop fighting each other.” Such was the high level of trust that some of the men who fled Green Bay after the alleged massacre in 1978, sought safe haven at the Laws Street Centre.

Observing the great suffering of her people after the onslaught of Hurricane Gilbert in 1988, Sister Benedict opted to move from the quiet Mercy convent to Laws Street. Mercy Superior, Sister Marie Chin, reflected that, at a time when most people were looking towards their retirement, Sister Benedict and her fellow Mercy member, Sister Irene, decided to make their permanent home in Central Kingston in order to make themselves more accessible to their beloved community.

Born Rona Chung to Frank Chung and Beryl (nee Lai) of Troy, Trelawny, Sister Benedict, an honours graduate of St Joseph’s Teachers College, is from a family of high achieving academics and professionals. They have wholeheartedly supported her choice of a life that has enriched of thousands of others. She has opened her heart and her schools entreating her neighbours to enter, pray, learn, eat, be happy; she is a living channel of her Maker’s infinite abundance.


Appropriately, Wayne Armond and ‘Dickie Bird’ McDonald, serenaded her with Taurus Riley’s classic, She’s Royal, even as she bustled about ensuring that we received generous slices of her 60th Anniversary cake that she insisted on baking herself.

Sister Benedict’s compassionate nurturing is a great love story for St Valentine’s week. To honour her 60 years of love for her Jamaican brothers and sisters, let’s do something extraordinarily good. Happy Valentine’s Day! lowriechin@aim.com

Observer - Feb 11 2008 - www.jamaicaobserver.com

Denis O'Brien - visionary philanthropist

Denis O'Brien, Chairman and Founder of Digicel, as he distributed school supplies to tiny tots at the Lakes Pen Basic School in St Catherine, Jamaica, built by the Digicel Foundation in November 2004.


This column was written on the occasion of Digicel's 5th Anniversary.

OBSERVER COLUMN FOR MONDAY APRIL 17, 2006

Denis O'Brien - visionary philanthropist
Jean Lowrie-Chin

It was an animated Denis O’Brien, Digicel Founder and Chairman who said in Trinidad last Tuesday, “Let the games begin! That’s the way of the world … We’re up to it – our staff is up to it.” This is the spirit of the Irish, a spirit which has re-energised the telecommunications industry in Jamaica and the region, providing employment for over 2,000 and empowerment to even the humblest members of the business community.

Irish Examiner business reporter, Ian Guider, who was in Trinidad for the Digicel launch, explained that the invigorated Irish economy of the nineties saw the emergence of many self-made millionaires. Most of them opted to restrict their investments to their homeland, “only a few like Denis O’Brien and the Kerry Group went global.”

It seems like only yesterday that a youthful Seamus Lynch appeared at our office to discuss O’Brien’s grand plan. I had worked with several multinationals, but never before had I seen this level of energy and daring. We hunkered down with Jamaica’s leading marketing guru Harry Smith, in a “war-room” and planned the biggest launch in our country’s history. Tomorrow is five years to the day that Jodi-Ann Maxwell and Makonnen Blake-Hannah switched on the Digicel service in Jamaica. Maxi Priest and river/reggae dancers wowed the awestruck guests whose complimentary phones lit up at midnight while laser lights glowed over New Kingston.

What made the company different from the outset was the unprecedented opportunities it offered not only for employment, but for Jamaican entrepreneurs. One such is the CEO of Fimi Wireless, Bernard Henry, who had initially been hired as Marketing Director of Digicel. When Henry crunched the numbers and saw the dealership dollar signs, he promptly resigned his job and with the assistance of his former employer, joined with partners to launch a chain of islandwide dealerships. I saw a happy Henry at the appropriately named Zen nightclub in Port of Spain, pleased with the early indicators of his business partnership in Trinidad.

But back to Jamaica, where Digicel now employs over a thousand of the brightest young people I have ever seen in one place. We know about the company’s customer care, but their best kept secret is probably the care of their internal customers, their staff members. Consider this. A Fifth Anniversary staff meeting – red carpeted entrance to the Pegasus Ballroom, Fab Five on the stage, Movado watches for the Five-Year employees, spot prizes galore and Destra to wow them. To introduce the proceedings, the witty Human Resource Director, Burnett Coke, dressed in his pyjamas!

This interest in people takes many turns. Like the day Digicel CEO David Hall and friends visit Floyd’s Pelican Bar in the middle of the sea near Treasure Beach. David gets a clear signal and asks Floyd if he could use his place in a Digicel ad. Floyd becomes an overnight star in his district, and when his bar is blown away by Hurricane Ivan, he gets help to rebuild it from his new best friends, Digicel.

Floyd was one of many who benefited when Digicel made the largest single corporate donation in Jamaica’s history, $200 million for post-Ivan reconstruction. “That is certainly not chicken-feed!” commented ONR CEO Danville Walker in a radio interview.

I try to resist writing about my clients, but I think you will agree that the brief five-year history of this company has literally changed the lives of the Jamaican people. I have two Digicel numbers for my helper – she was able to give her first phone to her teenage son, and buy another. She says that six years ago, she did not even dream of having a phone, much less two.

This is why it is important to celebrate entrepreneurship. It not only creates wealth for the entrepreneur, but a multiplicity of opportunities in direct relation to the reach of the entrepreneurial vision. Denis O’Brien’s managers and staff derive directly from his companies’ successes.

“Companies that embrace employee ownership consistently outperform companies that do not have a scheme of employee ownership,” says O’Brien. He believes in mentoring and succession planning: “ People’s senses are stimulated at a very early stage and management and staff begin to think like entrepreneurs.”

Sitting with young employees of the company at that memorable staff meeting, I asked them about their Digicel experience. Cherrica Rowe, Team Leader for the building department described it as, “fascinating – like a roller coaster ride that keeps getting more exciting.” Customer care support manager Chantelle Riley describes her job as “hard work and fun.” Team leader for operations/building Dawson Robinson said it was “very dynamic” while Henry Stennett Jr, of IT, every bit as charming as his dear Dad, describes it in one word, “fun”.

They all feel fortunate that Denis O’Brien chose Jamaica and grew his business to not only employ them, but also train and promote them. In a country where 85% of our university graduates migrate in search of greener fields, you cannot help but be moved by the testimony of these youngsters, bright, confident and motivated.

There are plans to build a stunning regional headquarters in the New Kingston area, as O’Brien wants the Jamaica people to feel his appreciation for the great Caribbean start he got here. His next frontier is Haiti, where this renowned philanthropist was so moved by its people’s needs, that ahead of being awarded the operating license, he sponsored their football programme and an environmental effort that will put money in the pockets of the poor through a plastic bottle recycling effort.

Group CEO Colm Delves says his Jamaican team is in Haiti, conducting intensive customer care. In this, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Delves says the facilities and opportunities there, will be typical of his company as Digicel wants to become an integral part of its development.

Before leaving for Haiti last Wednesday, Denis O’Brien said, “The Digicel Foundation and Caring Connections will be sponsoring sustainable projects in Haiti. Wherever we invest, we are committed to giving back a percentage of our sales to the people.” The visionary philanthropist added, “Haiti is really a great country – we’re going to do well there.”

With his business philosophy, no doubt Denis O’Brien and his redoubtable team will win the hearts of the Haitians. lowriechin@netscape.net

Good news sells!

If the Bible were written today, there would probably be a verse that says, “If the programme offends thee, tune it out”. Happily, we have lots of options and that’s what we are choosing to do after reading the transcript of the offensive remarks from a young lecturer-talk show host whose achievements we have lauded in the past.

Isn’t it interesting that US Presidential hopeful Barack Obama has been apologizing all over the place for using the innocuous word “bitter” while here in Jamaica, we find nothing wrong with someone describing a lady colleague, at the Caribbean’s leading university, as “dutty”? If I were she, I probably would be very, very bitter!

The back and forth over what is such a clear-cut case for disciplinary action has left well-thinking Jamaicans baffled. We are muttering to ourselves like “Bev Smith” in that old family planning ad, “Look what we have come to!” We had better wake up and realise that in this globalised environment, the most positive international language is good manners – no amount of education can take its place. Lloyd B Smith is so right to have expressed his distress at our increasing bumptiousness, when he quoted the astute Professor Rex Nettleford, on the overwhelming numbers of “butus in Benzes”.

This has nothing to do with being snobbish or old fashioned. Two weeks ago, we had a thanksgiving service for our pensioner Miss Icilda Riley, from Torrington Park. The humble folk from her yard conducted themselves with grace and dignity at the service. Miss Icy was childless, but a young lady who regarded her as a mother diligently stayed in touch with us to ensure that she got a proper send-off. We had schoolboys still in uniform, bowing their heads as the pastor prayed, and after the service, these goodly people spoke in quiet and gentle tones.

Perhaps the latest media survey can give us a hint as to what Jamaican people really want. TVJ now has a significant lead over CVM, and I believe that this is due to the fact that they have developed positive local programming and have been an enthusiastic partner in the Rising Stars phenomenon. Recently we mentioned the euphoria in Spanish Town when St. Jago took the School’s Challenge crown. TVJ’s ‘All Together Sing’ has put a little known school like Aabuthnott Gallimore on the map.

A good listen to IRIE-FM, the leading radio station will yield ever improving news and sports content, uplifting commentary in Franklin McKnight’s “Frankly Speaking” and balanced news reports from the African continent. Mutabaruka may be cutting but not crass. People are not just listening to IRIE for the music, they are listening to the station because it makes them feel as if we are finally getting it together, and feeling all right about our heritage and ourselves.

The good news therefore, is that good news sells! People will embrace good news once it is creatively, professionally packaged. It would be a shame to jettison someone with obvious talent – the UWI has an excellent institution in CARIMAC and should take this as a challenge to listen to what the surveys are saying, and make that station the gold standard for broadcasting. Let’s hope it’s not a case of “training, training everywhere but not a soul to think”.

The increased use of the internet has ensured that even the smallest lapse will be echoed around the world, and can make its mark on impressionable young minds. This is not the time to trumpet ‘press freedom’ as an excuse for vulgarity, but for us to see the power of the media to positively influence, even as it informs and entertains its audience.

Of course, the blame lies not only with the media but also with those of us whose revenue keep media houses viable. Recently we have become more conscious of the entertainment events that we sponsor. Savvy marketing people know that they would not want their products trumpeted alongside “dutty” comments – one skews the other, and will skewer your product!

In our business, there are enthusiastic sponsors of programmes like Schools Challenge and Owen James’ ‘Business Day’, but media marketing folks have to do a hard-sell of sub-standard programmes. The humble LOVE FM radio station continues to have high ratings because listeners yearn to be inspired. Now gospel concerts are attracting record crowds with Tommy and Carlene Cowan’s “Fun in the Son”, a Caribbean phenomenon.

As budgets tighten this year, ad agencies are being put on notice by their clients to ensure that they get the best cost-per-thousand listeners/readers (CPT) for their media messages. Newstalk only has 2% listenership (Marketing Strategy 2008 Survey), though a very influential following for their ‘Breakfast Club’. In this land of “Out of Many One People”, I am not sure which of my clients would want to be associated with a programme that trivializes an attack against one ethnic group, and is flat-footed in ensuring ethical standards.

There is also a tidal wave that no savvy media person can ignore, and that is the overarching internet. At the click of a button, my husband watches CNN live anytime on his laptop. Most of the top US media sites and of course the venerable BBC all have video news clips. Media houses should now be present and accounted for on the worldwide web. Our dailies and most of our radio stations have been retooling for the internet and already the Gleaner and the Observer offer online subscriptions. Those of us in the advertising business find the Observer’s e-Paper invaluable as we can clip ads and stories as they actually appear in print, from that website. Power 106 may have modest ratings in Jamaica, but is a giant among the diaspora, and friends overseas report to me regularly on programmes hosted by Ronnie Thwaites, Motty Perkins and Dervan Malcolm.

We should also acknowledge that media is big business with Jamaica’s leading entrepreneurs giving substantial backing, resulting in new employment opportunities in the field. It makes us all the more admiring of the more modest owners of the Sunday Herald and such popular community papers as the Western Mirror, the Northcoast Times and The News.

With over 20 radio stations and an audience of millions, our media bosses should be acknowledging the responsibility they have in promoting enlightenment and harmony. We are a free people, and just as we yearn for the freedom to move safely about our country, we should not be worried about switching on our radio, fearful of verbal assault.

Published Mon 21 April
www.jamaicaobserver.com

A working love for 2008

Mom celebrating her 80th birthday with grandchildren (l-r) Anita, Noel, Patrique and Danya (Angelo, a US Airforce Sergeant, was unavoidably absent).

(a Tribute to my mother the amazing Maisie Lowrie, on the occasion of her 82nd birthday)

In this Jamaica, where Bob Marley wrote the song of the millennium, One Love, we are still not understanding this powerful word. If we did, we would not be losing so many of our children to guns and gangs. In the New Year, we need to use new words for love, so we do not hide from the work that it requires.

This work has given the world high-achieving countries and peaceful communities. This work was done by men and women who put partisan politics aside, and by community groups with a passion to empower their fellowmen. We, who have been blessed with good parents, have the responsibility to do even more for those who have grown up in a wasteland of lovelessness.

Today my family celebrates the 82nd birthday of my mother, Maisie Lowrie, a woman who lovingly worked for family and community. Widowed with four children, aged six years to seven months, she set up her little house and shop with assistance from her mother, in the heart of Savanna-la-mar, Westmoreland.

Although she was sent only to elementary school, she constantly drilled into us the importance of a good education. She wrote in large letters and pasted on the wall, two motivational ditties: "Good, better, best" and "Labour for learning".

There was only one day that Mom intentionally kept us home from school. My sister and I had filched three pence from the shop till and we were discovered. That was our Armageddon! We were installed at our usual sweetie/cigar area - and every customer was told about the "ingratitude" of these "fatherless children" for whom she had toiled so mightily to send to "the good Catholic school on Lewis Street". It was all true - she had actually bartered her sewing skills and grocery deliveries for our school fees. After that day of disgrace, Mom's children have been described as "honest to a fault".

We had become such fixtures in the Savanna-la-mar library that when Miss Ottey, the librarian, heard that we were "migrating" to Kingston after our mother remarried, she had a dinner at her house in honour of her most avid little readers!

Arriving in Kingston, suddenly the wife of an upwardly mobile accountant, Maisie now had a partner that shared her zeal for fulfilling the potential of their children. Our little house in Pembroke Hall should have been a brief stop in my new dad's meteoric rise after becoming a chartered accountant. But illness incapacitated him and he was confined to a wheelchair.

We have no idea how they did it with dad in and out of hospital (to this day the names of Howard Aris and Sir John Golding are spoken with reverence in our house). Once more, we became poor, but our parents would not compromise on our education. They insisted on not only sixth form, but also university education for all four of us, as we helped in dad's home office and worked part-time. Mom raised chickens and sold eggs as well.

Our school reports were filed in chronological precision by our father. Poor marks would bring tears from my mother - tears! The sentence familiar to many humble Jamaican children was oft repeated in our house: "We have nothing to give you but your education - take it!"

In Big Bridge, Westmoreland, little Maisie grew up in a family of farmers and fisherfolk. She remembers waking at four o'clock in the morning to prepare lunch for her father, mother and seven brothers who would leave at dawn for their rice field bordering the Cabarita River. Without the utilities we take for granted today, she washed and ironed their khaki suits, kept the house and yard clean.

Her dad, Joseph Williams, was an elder in the Presbyterian Church and had nightly Bible readings with his daughter. She taught Sunday School and under Mrs Swaby, learnt and taught baking. She and her sister Ivy (who sadly died this month) also attended sewing school.

Mom continued the tradition with us. By then we had converted to Catholicism and we said the Rosary, a total of 67 prayers, each night. As she was raised, so she encouraged us to work for the church. Thrift was a watchword in our house. Bank accounts were opened for each child, and though we could barely reach the counter at Victoria Mutual, we had to make our own regular deposits.

After our dad passed in 1977, Mom threw herself into church activities. She is a special minister at Our Lady of the Angels Church, still driving and taking the Blessed Sacrament to her shut-ins each Sunday. Relatives know that they must buy tickets for her church fund raisers - COD! She glories in her grandchildren and great-grandchild, and enjoys the camaraderie of her dear church sisters. A gifted baker, she made all our wedding cakes. Yesterday she was decorating her own birthday cake!

Earlier this year my mother drove herself to the bank, and just after she re-entered her car, a man jumped into the passenger seat beside her. "What are you doing in my car?" she asked the man. Then she proceeded to tell him about her faith. "You are a woman of God," commented the man. Before suddenly leaving her car, he pointed to her untouched handbag, and shouted, "See you bag there!"

My mother calmly proceeded to the supermarket at the other end of the shopping centre, and later when I made my nightly call she said, "By the way, guess what happened to me today." With my knees suddenly turning to jelly, I begged her not to drive anywhere alone again and she repeated the words that have become her motto: "I am a woman of faith, not of fear." We are humbled by her courageous journey that we hope will continue for many more years.

Clover and the “fadas”

Clover Baker-Brown with the children at her summer school for reading in Vineyard Town.

Writing this column certainly has its perks – and none perkier that the ebullient Clover Baker-Brown who has been a great supporter of my activist writings over the past years. Though she lives in the US where she is pursuing a doctorate in education administration, Clover is a passionate patriot, determined to return and make her mark.

This lady from Kendal, Manchester decided that she would conduct her own summer school a few months ago, at Clan Carthy Primary in Kingston, enlisting her friends to read to the over 100 children who flocked to her programme. Clover was moved by the cleanliness of the children, the deep interest of responsible family members, especially the mothers, and the general respect showed by all for education. “It was tiring, it was taxing, but it was one of the greatest experiences I have ever had in my life,” declared Clover.

Since then, Clover has been keeping in touch with the children and shared her reflections on the conversations. “I spoke to some of the mothers too, and I could hear both joy and surprise when they realized I was on the other end of the phone….However, one person was silent from these conversations,” said Clover, “he was also missing at the camp – the father. And that got me questioning/thinking: who are these men and where are these men?”

Clover asked the children for their Dads and arrived at these definitions of their answers:
1) “him not home” [he does not live at home with these kids]
2) “him no deh ya” – [he is not at home at that time]
3) “mi no know weh him deh” [he could be dead for all we know]
4) “me no know him” [complete unawareness of who his/her father is]
5) “mi run him out” [father not living up to his end of the deal and mother puts him out]
6) and the all too sad excuse of, “him dead”. It is never clear when someone says in the Jamaican vernacular “him dead” when referring to his/her father. It could be one of two ‘deads’: 1) either he is literally dead, as in gone from the earth or 2) dead, as in existing in abdication of his responsibilities, and complete lack of knowledge of his whereabouts exists on the part of the mother.

Intrepid Clover did pursue the “living” Dads, challenging them about their lack of involvement in their children’s lives. “And the strangest thing happened!!” exclaimed Clover, “I actually spoke to these men in a manner befitting how I was feeling – ANGRY! And every conversation that I had with these “fadas” blew my mind every time. I was at least expecting one or two of them to really give me a good ole Jamaican “cuss off”, and I was expecting three or four of them to tell me to mind my own d--n business!! But imagine, not one person was rude or disrespectful or behaved in any way that I could consider distasteful. And surprisingly enough, every last one of them was receptive to the fact that I was “cussing” them off! Shocking, nuh true?!!”

Clover concluded that these men were ashamed. “They all sounded so contrite, remorseful, and ASHAMED!” she said. “Ashamed? I was quite shocked that I was interpreting their responses as feeling shamed into being called out. I was mesmerized as I asked myself questions that I could not answer: could I have shamed these men into boys? ‘But how could you leave your children to the mercies of the world, and then feel ashamed when you are called up to answer for it?’”

As Clover spoke to the men, it dawned on her that they also had been wounded by their own fatherlessness – caught in the cycle of deprivation, desolation, and desperation. “And so, the only word that kept coming into my mind was dialogue,” offered Clover. “We need to have dialogue with these men; we need to understand what it is that is responsible for this vicious cycle. We need to understand it so that we can begin the process to do something about it. It is a scourge in the society!”

By initiating the conversations and getting this response, Clover confirmed Don Robotham’s findings about our innercity men in his study entitled “They cry respect”.

“The evidence is overwhelming,” says Clover. “The lack of parenting, caused primarily through single parenting, is the single biggest contributing factor to the decrepit condition that we have brought this country to, and it is a doggone SHAME! …Mentoring is a key component in a boy’s life; this is where they can be helped to find meanings for the challenges that they will inevitably experience,” she believes.

Currently Associate Professor at Prince Georges Community College in Largo Maryland, Clover credits her mentors for taking her thus far. The first is her mother, Lovelette Barrett-Williams: “I have been very blessed with a strong Jamaican woman for a mother. She was a no-nonsense Jamaican woman who really loved me.”

Her other mentors are James P. McLaughlin, Principal of Kendal All Age School, the late Dr. Leroy Wells, Howard University, and Mrs. Barbara Lee, Executive Director, Fair Trading Commission, Jamaica. Of them, Clover says “They taught me how to love – how to love myself and how to love others, and how to authorize myself to do what I want to do. They also taught me how to check myself, especially when I become too arrogant for my own good.”

Clover contributed significantly to the foundation of the FSC as the communications driver for its predecessor, the Securities Commission. (She may very well have helped to inspire Michael Lee-Chin when she got AIC to sponsor a Savings and Investment Competition, and brought him to Jamaica in 2000 to speak at the presentation. Two years later he bought NCB.)

While Clover could get along with anyone, anywhere in the world, she aims at completing her doctorate and returning home, well equipped to serve her country: “If I could be from any place in the world of my choosing, I would choose Jamaica again, again and again.”

“It is no question in my mind that Jamaica has a much more significant role to play on the world stage,” says Clover. “In order for us to expedite this process, we have to understand that we are either going to be successful as a group or fail as a group… We have to return to the days when we really were our brothers' and sisters’ keepers, instead of being keepers of nightmares for our brothers and sisters!”

We need big-hearted Jamaicans like Clover to come home and join the ranks of the bonafides who are fearful of becoming a minority in our homeland. lowriechin@aim.com

'Football is like love'

Legends Winston Chung Fah and Johnny Barnes



Admit it. During the World Cup, we are all slightly distracted. Telephone conversations become disjointed as we see a ball heading for goal. Trading on the stock market goes flat, and relationships take a beating ("Sorry, darling-I didn't say 'go', I said 'goal!'"). I had to discuss this global frenzy with my friend the legendary Winston Chung Fah, widely regarded as the godfather of Jamaican football.
I asked Chungie why football had this ability to transfix us and he said the great Pele had one short answer, "Football is not a game; it is an emotion." Chungie likens the game to love and asks, "How can you really define love?" How indeed. There are really no words to describe that day in November 1997, the day we took to the streets to hug each other, wave flags and honk our horns, when Jamaica drew with Mexico at our National Stadium to qualify for the World Cup.
Winston Chung Fah took me back to the year 1950 when post-World War II euphoria reached an all-time high as Brazil hosted the World Cup. They built the gigantic Maracana Stadium, capacity of over 200,000, with the expectation that Brazil would triumph. Brazil lost and gloom engulfed the country. Several fans committed suicide and the once-popular president lost the elections held soon afterwards.
My friend quoted Bill Shankley, the great coach of Liverpool who said, "You're acting as if football is a matter of life and death-let me tell you, it is much more than that!"
Chungie created the Santos Football Club in 1964, describing it as "the tent under which all classes could meet-uptown, downtown and cross-town". Before that, he said, the less fortunate youngsters did not have an opportunity to hone their skills. "This is why I cherish my long-time friendship with Excelsior star and National player, Patrick Chin. He could have gone with the more elite teams, but we had the same vision. He and other colleagues used their resources to help others in the team."
The nucleus of the team was Chin, twin brothers Niah and Shiah Hardie, Peter Lee, Karl Hans from Maiden Lane, George Burke and Tony Holbrook. Santos went on to win Division One, featuring the famous Alan "Skill" Cole and Michael Levy. My husband Hubie Chin, Patrick's brother, was on the junior team, the first Santos team to win a championship (I have the picture to prove it).
Chungie sees football as a unifier and motivator. He remembers the tremendous contribution made by Winthorpe "Jackie" Bell and Dennis Ziadie who tragically lost their lives in a bus accident when they attended the World Cup in Mexico in 1986. He believes that his best moment in Jamaican football was a World Championship match with Mexico in 1965, when Jamaica "mashed up" the field at the National Stadium, showing world-class mettle although Mexico ended up the winners. He knew then, that one day Jamaica would reach the World Cup.
So why is Jamaica not in Germany? Chung thinks it was a blunder to have England-based player Darryl Powell, the leading goal-scorer for the Jamaica team, on the bench for the Jamaica-USA match. However, he does not want to "bad-talk" the local coaches because he believes that while Rene Simoes did a good job, Jamaican directors have never been provided with the same tools as the foreigners.
Who will win the 2006 World Cup? "Well, Brazil is my team," says Chungie. "But it's early days yet, and their centre-backs are slightly suspect. Sixty per cent of the game is played in the middle of the field, but if they do more passes, the defence wouldn't have much to do.
Offensively, Brazil should be the best. But Argentina looked very good on Friday!" He warned that some of the stars have come into the World Cup from "very physical" leagues and we have not been able to do a proper evaluation of their injuries. Moreover, he says that Brazil is under great pressure as "everybody is playing against them".
Chungie is very proud of Trinidad and Tobago's performance so far. He had worked with them for a month, before the arrival of their Dutch coach and was congratulated by Jack Warner for the role he played in motivating the team.
He remarked on last week's report that there were discussions with Johnny Barnes about the possibility of coaching the Jamaica team. "Johnny would be able to lift us up. Remember how we all switched to supporting Liverpool when he went there? He could do a lot-they should try to secure him!" he said. Well do I remember that golden day at Chukka Cove in 1989 when Chungie teamed up with Johnny to conduct a Football Clinic for school boys and girls. Both had the kids' rapt attention-it was amazing what they achieved in a single day.
The popular coach hopes to return to Jamaica from Cayman one day to set up a Centre of Excellence to develop the best young football talent in the country, blending sports and academics. "Last year alone in Cayman, I was able to get 12 scholarships for the kids here. Imagine how many more I could get with all the talent we have in Jamaica.
I would like us to work out a system where we work with the inner-city youth, get them through university and bond them to return after they graduate to work with other youngsters. When our young people hear one of their own talking about studying and achieving, that will be the best motivation."
Chungie thinks that PM Simpson Miller has sent the right signal about her commitment to youth and sports by retaining that portfolio. "I think sports will definitely go forward. With the wealth of experience that Eddie Seaga and PJ Patterson have, it would be a great plus for them to be sitting with and advising the prime minister. We have to bury the past and move on."
Chungie wants to use football to turn young people away from crime. "That is what I want to leave for my country. I met with George Phang and I told him, 'Pepper, this has to stop.' Too many bright youth losing their life. I want to give them hope."
He singles out Ricardo "Bibi" Gardner and Ricardo Fuller as footballers that our youngsters can emulate. "I hear Bibi's name being mentioned as the next captain of the Bolton Wanderers-that would be big business. He has a lot of class and character. When he was going to England for the first time, he asked for his mother to stay with him. That told me a lot.
"We are going to go places. We should give Portia a chance," he says. "Don't be too hasty to judge her. I remember Foggy Burrowes saying that we shouldn't be afraid to make mistakes-the only people who don't make mistakes are those who do nothing."

The rising Bruce Golding

This column by Jean Lowrie-Chin was published on December 4 2006, in the Jamaica Observer. In September 2007, Bruce Golding led the JLP to victory in the General Elections and was sworn in as Prime Minister.

Had he poured his passion into other endeavours, Bruce Golding would by now have several "handles" on his name. But from childhood, Golding has been taking the road less travelled. Imagine this nine-year-old from Alpha Primary, refusing to accept that he was too young to attend high school. He marched himself over to St George's College, armed with his excellent Common Entrance results, to argue his case to the authorities.
Golding entered St George's at 10, and passed the Senior Cambridge exams before he was 15 with distinctions in Maths and English. At 19, Golding interrupted his studies at UWI to rescue his father's campaign when changes in his constituency boundaries deprived him of several strongholds. The late Speaker of the House, Tacius Golding, won a decisive victory.
Tomorrow, when the Leader of the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party celebrates his 59th birthday, he cannot only look back at super-sized accomplishments, but can also look forward to a general election next year, the best chance of his lifetime to lead his country.
So what are some of the credentials of this man, Bruce Golding, who does not immediately sweep you off your feet, but whose quiet warmth eventually "takes your spirit"? Charisma comes in many forms. At the 63rd JLP Conference on November 19, Golding said, "I am what I am. I am just a simple human being who loves his country, who has an abiding faith in the goodness of the Jamaican people."
Steeped in the politics of the Jamaica Labour Party since he was two years old, Golding entered active politics as a teenager and, by age 24, became Jamaica's youngest ever member of parliament, copping the West St Catherine seat, a national record that still stands. Golding told the conference what he believes for himself: "We are born with the capacity for greatness."
So used are we to different manifestations of greatness, the fiery Marcus Garvey, the swashbuckling Bustamante, that we find it difficult to think of greatness in the form of a man who would walk away from a powerful position in the JLP, beg his country's forgiveness for past sins, start a "new and different" political party and lose his cherished seat in Parliament because he refused to answer violence with violence.

But this is exactly what happened after his proposal for reforms in the JLP were rejected in 1995, the beginning of seven lean but redemptive years for Bruce Golding.
I winced for the NDM, when I heard their slogan, "Change the System", focused on constitutional reform. Perhaps because we are still graduating semi-literates out of high school I knew that this approach would get little traction. Campaigning in a "new and different" way, turning his back on any form of intimidation, Bruce Golding lost his seat in the House of Parliament.
Well do I remember that election day in 1997. As communications consultant for the EOJ, I received a call to prepare an urgent radio announcement. It appeared that poll clerks at certain stations in Central St Catherine had been threatened the night before and had not turned up to open the polls. After the notice reminding the presiding officers that they could be penalised under the law for delinquency, they showed up. No one will ever know how many votes those late starters cost Golding.
After a failed by-election in North East St Ann, Golding called it quits with the NDM, and admitted responsibility for not being able to attract more votes. We heard Golding being called many names: "failure", "traitor", "politically dead".
That he could have hosted such a balanced, interesting talk show, "Disclosure", running second only to the entrenched "Hotline" is yet another instance of Bruce turning defeat into a "Golding Opportunity". In a back-handed way, these testing times served him well, proving to detractors that he was his own man, not a "Seaga clone".
Golding's stable family life is not typical of our political leaders. His wife of 34 years, Lorna, and his three children have publicly attested to his love and support. As we warmed to Errald Miller's endorsement of his beautiful Portia, so has the public responded positively to the lovely, serene Lorna Golding speaking of her husband's encouragement of her entrepreneurial ambitions.
This unconditional support system has taken Bruce Golding through his darkest days. When the JLP came a-courting in 2002, Golding insisted that a Memorandum of Understanding be drawn up before he accepted.
Among the terms insisted on by Bruce Golding were:
. practical initiatives to eliminate political tribalism and garrison politics.
. special prosecutor to investigate and prosecute corruption among public officials.
. oversight committees of Parliament to be chaired by Opposition members.
. re-examine issues of separation of powers, term limits and fixed election dates.
It is a secure human being that would prescribe his own limitations. "I have sought to build the party not around me but around a set of ideas and principles," Golding told the conference. "Leaders will come and leaders will go, but the ideals that hold us together will endure."
Within three short months from February to April of last year, Golding's political fortunes reached a new high as he was elected unopposed as JLP leader, won the election in West Kingston to become their member of parliament, thereby becoming eligible to take over as Leader of the Opposition.
Golding's legendary organisational skills, attracting credible new members, have sent the party's stocks soaring. Jamaicans have welcomed this more unified, re-energised Opposition party, their vigilance backed by meticulous research. Even as Bruce Golding hopes to form the next government, he continues to demand a strengthening of the Opposition's role.
4 December 2006 lowriechin@aim.com

A flowers fi di Dread

It was Friday December 3, 1976 and photographer Lennie Gordon and I were leaving the Hilton Hotel (then called the New Kingston Hotel) when we saw Bob Marley about to get into his car. "May I take a picture with you?" I asked. He flashed his fabulous smile and said yes.
Would you believe, later that very evening, Bob Marley was shot at his Hope Road home, wearing this same shirt in the photo. Thank God he survived to star in the historical Peace Concert two days later in Jamaica's National Stadium.

Bob transited this life in May 1981. Thousands lined up to pay their last respects as he lay in state at our National Arena. The poem below was my experience.


“Righteous! A flowers fi di Dread!”
The man salutes
My ribbon-tied rose
As we inch towards the Arena
Sun hot, heart warm
One love for Bob.

Steps slow to the beat
Of the mournful drums
Chests heave, eyes mist
To see our sleeping star
Still – too still
With his quiet guitar
A gentle man puts the rose
Intensely red
beside the Dread.
“Jah give
Jah taketh away
Jah live!”

© Jean Lowrie-Chin

Life’s Lighter Side

A recent Time Magazine cover featured not the usual world leader, but the round, yellow, Mr Smileyface, that cheery symbol we put on notes to our friends. Turns out that scientists are discovering that happy, optimistic people live healthier, longer lives. I’ve also found them to be some of the most prosperous – positive people radiate energy.

Winston 'Bello' Bell

Despite our daunting crime problems, Jamaicans still have that great gift of being able to look on the lighter side. In the tradition of Louise Bennett and Ranny Williams, Charles Hyatt, Oliver Samuels, Fae Ellington, Claudette Pious , Winston ‘Bello’ Bell, ‘Blacka’ Ellis, Michael ‘Boysie’ London, Tony ‘Paleface’ Hendricks, Joan Andrea Hutchinson, ‘Ity and Fancy Cat’, young Christopher ‘Johnny’ Daley, and so many more, we have sweetened our lives with humour. It should come as no surprise that we have the life expectancy of first world countries.

Oliver Samuels

One look at Oliver Samuels, and you start laughing. My friend’s late mother who was in an advanced stage of Alzheimer’s disease, was unresponsive until the ‘Mack D’s’ ad came on TV. Whenever Oliver said “Mack D’s gone mad!” she would become animated and laugh merrily. Such is the power of comedy.

We don’t have to go far to find a joke. Take my husband’s football team (please!). Each of them has a nifty nickname, with a long involved story as to how they got ‘christened’. They include Led, Sour, Spanner, Rubie, Dugu – strange names but great guys. Believe me, if we put Led’s (Richard Wan’s) outrageous laughter to a good reggae beat, it would go platinum.

We create strange names. I know a toothless guy called “Sawfmouth” and a man named “Suckdust” - he does the vacuuming at a rural supermarket. My friend’s helper refuses to wrap her tongue around the French word mayonnaise, so she has dubbed it “mahagony butter”. At Caymanas Park, a sore loser will call for a “Stewart’s enquiry” and that distinguished auditing firm is often referred to as “Peat Margaret”. Then I’ve heard a fed up guy saying: “I am done, done, done - Dunn, Cox and Orrett!”

Charles Hyatt

We love to make fun of our local lingo. When Charles Hyatt was stopped from going to a public restroom, he indignantly pointed out to the security guard that the sign clearly stated “fe male”. During the discotheque era the story was told of a skimpily dressed young lady who informed her father that she was going to the popular nightspot to which he answered, “Discotheque? ‘Dis go tek’ off that skirt!” Then there is the story of the tourist who said he loved Jamaica well enough, but was puzzled at the folksong, “Some of them are Hollow, some are Bald.”

My friend Micky Lyn has a zany sense of humour. He was a touring partner in our teenage days and we remember him shouting to a careless pedestrian, “Lady, you ever see a car in plaster-paris??” He it was, who couldn’t resist catching crabs on the country road, though he had nowhere to put them overnight, so he locked them in a shower stall at the hotel and stood on a plastic crate to have his shower, continuously kicking off the critters.

My brother Tony

My awful brother Tony Lowrie takes the cake. From an early age, this terrible fellow became the bane of my existence. These are two lines from a birthday ‘poem’ he penned me: “Today you’re 25 or is it 26?/ Neither your body nor your brain gives any clue of it/ But your sands of time are getting few/ What about my neice and little nephew?” One day he became very serious and said, “I have something important to tell you. Of my three sisters, You. Are. Definitely - the ugliest. But!” he shouted as I lunged for his throat, “You know how to fix up yourself.”

I am not sure why we asked him to be our son’s godfather – now my son has two role models, Uncle Tony and Elephant Man. Have you ever tried to discipline your six-foot teenage son when he’s doing the ‘chaka-chaka’? I’m asking him about his SBAs and he’s telling me, “Look outa road! Flowers a bloom! Shankle dip!” Mercy!

I thought my family was hilarious until we met my sister’s in-laws, the Fischers in Buffalo, New York. Tommy and his brother Ray would embarrass the older folk by pretending to be a passionately gay couple at big family occasions. Then Tommy’s sister once plastered him with make-up, dressed him like a bride and sent a photograph with a fake account of the ‘wedding’ to the local paper, which was given great prominence in the social pages.

We’re virtually addicted to our hilarious media personalities. No matter what kind of morning I’m having, Alan Magnus and Dorraine Samuels can ‘Make me laugh’ - they have marvelous timing. Francois and Danae are no slouches, either. Then there are Barbara Gloudon’s priceless quips, and the funniest pair on TV, Simon and Neville. Lindy Delapenha was great in his hey-day. Once there was a break in a show he was hosting and words on the screen read: “We apologise for the interruption, due to a technical itch.” When they got back on the air, Lindy was scratching himself and saying with a straight face, “Sorry, technical itch.”

The Time Magazine story included a ‘happiness rating’ for countries throughout the world. Though we’re not mentioned, I found it interesting that some of the biggest economies (including Japan and Singapore) were rated less happy than many poorer countries. “Tek ‘kin teet’ kibba heartbu’n”, advised Miss Lou. Laughter not only covers, it cures.

Michael Lee-Chin - 'Magnifique!'

The Michael Lee-Chin Crystal glowed against Toronto's night sky. Tens of thousands of spectators crammed the city streets for the opening of this revolutionary addition to the Royal Ontario Museum. The man of the moment spoke from the giant outdoor stage: "Two nights ago I stood in this place with my mother, Hyacinth Gloria Chen, for the very first time. And it was my mother who said, "What's a little orphan girl from Jamaica doing here?"
To sustained applause, the billionaire philanthropist affirmed, "There is no poverty that cannot be overcome except that of an impoverished spirit."
Lee-Chin credits his mother for lighting the fire of ambition in him, and hugged her tightly with tears in his eyes after none other than Canadian Governor General Michaëlle Jean declared the building open two Saturdays ago, with a graceful flourish of the hand, exclaiming, "Magnifique!"
Magnifique, indeed, the magnanimity of this immigrant-turned-billionaire, the lead donor for the 175,000 square-foot Crystal which houses five galleries and the Hyacinth Gloria Chen Crystal Court, named for the lady whose unfailing courage inspired him to dream big dreams.
There are many stirring episodes in the life of this man who is determined to help restore peace and build prosperity in his homeland, Jamaica. Last year, Lee-Chin was driving through his beloved Port Antonio when he saw a group of men standing along the path leading down to the sparkling Blue Lagoon, a recent acquisition.
After greeting them, he asked, "How would you like to be able to send your children to university?" They were immediately interested. Then he asked, "Who is the leader here?" They pointed out "King Sabba".
"King Sabba," said Michael. "I want you and your friends to take charge of clearing out this area. Go to the hardware store, and ask them to give you brush-cutters, rakes, wheelbarrows on my account. Then I want you to start working right away. I'll come by every couple of weeks to see how you're doing." The men have been doing well, obviously charged with a vision of that glorious graduation day.
Michael knows this is no pipe dream. A few decades before, he was the youngster pushing a wheelbarrow on the grounds of Frenchman's Cove, grateful for a summer job at the posh hotel where his mother worked as a bookkeeper for Granger Weston (thereby hangs a tale - you will see further on).
In an earlier column entitled "If Shearer had denied Lee-Chin", I described young Michael's determination to complete his college education even after he had run out of money. He used his last few dollars to return to Jamaica from McMaster University in Canada, and pleaded his case with the late Prime Minister Hugh Shearer. He graduated, returned to fulfil his bond, joining the engineering team at Jamaica's Ministry of Works to build the Mandela Highway.
The threads of this special life have been woven into an intriguing tapestry. Michael Lee-Chin has met with Mandela for an outreach project in South Africa. Then in 2002, he opened Forbes magazine and saw his picture beside that of Granger Weston's brother Galen and his wife Hilary: Lee-Chin had made the famous Forbes' billionaire list.
"I thought to myself - this must mean something," said Michael at a press preview of the Crystal. "There it was - my photograph side by side with the Westons." As reported in the New York Times, when approached by Mrs Weston to be the lead donor of Can$30 million for the ROM, Michael remarked that she could have simply asked her husband at the breakfast table to write the cheque. She countered, "If you write the cheque, it would be an inspiration to every single immigrant." That resonated with Lee-Chin and indeed, Mrs Weston was right.
The pride among immigrants was obvious a few days ago when a group of media representatives from Jamaica attended the two-day celebrations marking the opening of the Crystal.
Journalist Barbara Ellington (a childhood friend of Lee-Chin's family) asked a Korean photo shop owner if he could email photos for her and explained that she was in Toronto to cover the opening of the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal. "I don't do emails," said the man, "but I will do it for Lee-Chin."
A couple of months ago, Michael heard that there was an artist's studio in the old Port Antonio railway station. The next day he was there, buying pieces from the talented painters.
I was relating this and the Blue Lagoon episodes to AIC vice-president Robert Almeida who offered insightful analysis.
"Mike demonstrated the key principles of getting things done," he said. "He shared a vision, identified a leader and then he made sure that they had the right tools." Robert said that Mike also checks the progress of their work in the belief that "if practice makes perfect, then excellence should be a habit".
He described Michael's support of the Port Antonio artists as "the power of encouragement". Almeida said that in embracing Portland Holdings' philosophy of "doing well and doing good, we are uniting the desire to achieve with the desire to serve".
To date Lee-Chin's multimillion-dollar investments have spanned almost every aspect of business, employing thousands and funding community outreach programmes, also to the tune of millions. Matching his successes abroad, his daring investment in National Commercial Bank five years ago has seen unprecedented profits.
When PIOJ Executive Director Dr Wesley Hughes announced last week that 2006 had seen the lowest level of migration from Jamaica since 1953, I reflected on Lee-Chin's remark that we in the Caribbean "have acres of diamonds in our own backyards". Thanks to his patriotism and perseverance, we may finally be discovering them.

11 June 07 lowriechin@aim.com

It Takes Just One

Pride of Spanish Town: Schools Challenge Quiz champions, the St Jago High School team, (l-r) Aundrae Brown, Kayodi Drake, Greig Drummond, Romeo Lee.

by Jean Lowrie-Chin

From the beginning of time, we have honoured the power of that individual, that passionate visionary who gives hope and opportunities. And so last Thursday, the 12th Observer Business Awards buoyed us up as we listened to the hard and sometimes painful steps taken by the six nominees, all winners, to reach great heights.

In listening to their stories, in reflecting on the lives these top Jamaicans that we have met through the pages of this newspaper over the past years, we should thank an exceptional journalist, a visionary in his own right, for the telling. In many ancient traditions, skilful storytellers held a place of honour in their societies. They were the vessels of history and it was through their vivid use of language that traditions and ancestral pride were kept alive. Moses Jackson has given us more than enough food for a thoughtful journey to success over the past 12 years as founding member of the Awards Committee and its chief scribe.

Who knew that 2007 Observer Business Leader of the Year Glen Christian wore his first pair of shoes when he was 13? Who would have guessed that the graceful Diana Stewart had been in a serious accident at the age of eight and was told by top US doctors that she would never walk again? Who would have imagined that Shirley Carby, an employee of venerated English publishers, would have decided with husband Carl, that since they would not take her ideas on board to produce more indigenous educational books, they would just have to start their own company.

Further who could ever believe that young Ken Morgan who was too nervous to sit the Common Entrance, who had little high schooling, would resume study in his late teens, pass the entrance exams to CAST (now UTECH) and qualify himself to retool his father’s business now grossing $450 million? And what possessed Basil Johnson to believe that out of nothing, he could build the largest hardware chain in the west and become a successful developer? Then there is the youngest kid on the leaders’ block, Andrew Pairman, having the audacity to leave his Mom’s drapery business, read the signs pointing to fantastic opportunities in telecoms, launching Anbell agencies and growing it just in time to ride the Digicel wave.

In every story we read of disappointments, back breaking efforts, team building, and the unfailing hope that would take these individuals and couples to the level of success that would be recognised anywhere on the planet. Young Andrew saw his friends migrating but decided he would make his way in his homeland. Such decisions mean jobs for Jamaicans and the six companies together account for hundreds of employees and millions of dollars in taxes that keep our country ticking.

As Observer Chairman Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart said, “A country is nothing more than a multiple of businesses. To the degree that businesses do well, a country does well.” To great applause, he told us, “For too many years, some people regarded it as a sin to make a profit.” Passion and love were also important he said, but “if you don’t make a profit, your passion won’t last long.”

This bighearted entrepreneur reflected on the resourcefulness of Jamaica’s informal commercial traders who would take food from our soil, save and buy their plane tickets and fly to countries such as Curacao to sell their provisions, purchase goods for sale in Jamaica, building small and thriving businesses. He reflected that many successful, well educated Jamaicans have been nurtured by these humble entrepreneurs.

In an impromptu speech, Finance Minister Audley Shaw gave us stirring thoughts. “Too easily have we accepted mediocrity,” he rightfully said. “We have an opportunity to renew our commitment… in the pursuit of excellence, one person can make a difference.”

At the Business Leader event, Cliff Hughes and his team were continuously taping and interviewing for a Nationwide broadcast. Cliff is himself an entrepreneur who works in the trenches to build his business, now with a workforce of 35. I remember calling Cliff on the news of the sad death of our mutual friend Hugh Croskill and remarking that of all of us, he probably did the most important thing for Hugh: he kept the faith in this world-class journalist by giving him a job, and helping to shore up his dignity.

The Observer Business Leader Awards, above all, breaks the myth that successful business people are specially privileged. These stories tell us that each and every one of us has the power to become our own boss and mentors of others. The superlative business leader David Hall, outgoing CEO of Digicel Jamaica, has never failed to express admiration for the resourcefulness and determination of Jamaicans. In relating to the media Digicel’s modus operandi for sales, he said the company encouraged Jamaican-owned dealerships “because there is no better salesman than a Jamaican.” People like Bernard Henry and Marlon Creary have proved him right.

And so, as we mull over that Amnesty report about our poor left to the mercy of gangs, we should understand that as Butch Stewart says, it is only when we can grow our businesses and provide meaningful jobs that we can release our people from this misery.

How does success influence the mood of a community? If you watched TVJ on Wednesday night, you would know. Schools Challenge Quiz champions the St Jago High School Team, their teachers, schoolmates complete with marching band made a victory march through the streets of Spanish Town. TVJ GM Kay Osborne said there was jubilation as people lined the streets to cheer their young heroes. “Spanish Town was wonderful, joyful!” an emotional Kay told us. Imagine, those shottas seeing these four young men raised up and respected, not because of their “intra-tech” but because of their intellect – what a profound, moving message.