There is still cause for celebration

 Observer column published MON 4 April 2022

by Jean Lowrie-Chin

Jamaica PM Andrew Holness welcomed by
US Vice President Kamala Harris 

We can become so mired in the negative news of the day that we do not celebrate Jamaica’s many wins in recent weeks. We could see that warm genuine smile on the face of US Vice President Kamala Harris as she welcomed our Prime Minister Andrew Holness and Ministers Senator Kamina Johnson Smith and Dr Nigel Clarke to the White House.

Indeed, Vice President Harris remarked, “As a point of personal privilege, I grew up going to Jamaica.  My family — half of my family is from St. Ann Parish in Jamaica. And I know I’ve shared that history with millions of Americans who have their roots through the generations in Jamaica.”

PM Holness noted in his response, “Madam Vice President, let me say that you have been a source of inspiration and great pride for many Caribbean people — in particular, our young women in the region. And we are, indeed, seeing an increase in the political participation of young women. And this diversity in the political space will augur well for the — for the region. “

According to a White House report, “The Vice President underscored that the U.S.-Jamaica partnership is a priority for the Biden-Harris Administration and that this year, the 60^th anniversary of diplomatic ties between our two nations, we are committed to strengthening our ties.”

Our delegation did not return home empty-handed, as Vice President Harris announced a US$20 million grant over a five-year period “to strengthen and expand key industries for Jamaica”, and a further US$10 million for the support of violence reduction with special focus on our at-risk youth.

We saw that Ambassador Audrey Marks was very much at the table of talks and thank her for her efforts in keeping Jamaica front of mind.

It is a big deal that our small country, population three million, is afforded valuable time on the busy agenda of the White House. However, let us not forget that our geographical location at the crossroads of the Americas, our proud history as a strong democracy and our cultural impact are notable factors. Let us take the goodwill and the gifts as a challenge to make Vice President Harris even more proud of her roots, as we tackle crime and violence.

Jamaican leadership

Dr Nigel Clarke 

We were proud to learn that Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke was last week elected unanimously as chairman of the Board of Governors of Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC) for 2022. Dr Clarke was nominated by the governor for Paraguay, Oscar Llamosas Díaz, and seconded by the temporary alternate governor for Canada, Andrew Hurst.

Diaz is quoted by Jamaica Observer Senior Reporter Andrew Laidley as saying, “because of his great leadership and his ability to bolster public finances in his country we are sure that his vision, commitment and leadership will also guide us in this process to renew and strengthen the IDB Group as the needs of our countries and the region currently demands.”

During the White House visit, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen congratulated Dr Clarke on his election as the Chair of the IADB Group’s Board of Governors.

We also learned that the Government is proposing Senator Kamina Johnson Smith for the post of Secretary General of the Commonwealth. Although there are mutterings about our move because the incumbent Baroness Patricia Scotland had been recommended at a Caricom meeting, we should be aware that there has been controversy around her governance of the organization. The election of the Secretary General will be made during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, to take place from 20th to 25th June 2022 in Kigali, Rwanda.

We wish Senator Johnson Smith success in her campaign as she is widely respected as an accomplished professional.

We are in recovery mode

STATIN last week reported that for the fourth quarter of 2021, Jamaica’s economy grew by 6.7 percent. The Institute noted that the services and goods producing industry registered a 9.5 percent growth. STATIN said the relaxation of some COVID-19 measures, including the easing of global travel restrictions and reduced curfews hours may have impacted this growth. Hotels and restaurants represented the fastest recovering sector, with gains of 79.5 percent. May we continue to recover, but please don’t ditch your mask.

Vincent Hosang UWI Awards

Entrepreneurship awards at UWI: Douglas Lindo (Chairman, Vincent HoSang Entrepreneurship Programme), Dr. David McBean, (Executive Director, Mona School of Business and Management), Dr. Leighton Ellis, 3rd Place Winner, Trae-Ana Wilkins, 1st Place Winner, Joshua Anderson, 2nd Place Winner, Christopher Brown, (General Manager, Project Management Unit, Development Bank of Jamaica) and Tamra Thomas, (Programme Coordinator, Vincent HoSang Entrepreneurship Programme).

The Vincent Hosang UWI Venture Competition, offering J$1 million cash and prizes attracted eighty entrants, with eight finalists emerging to deliver their pitch earlier this year. The winners were: first place ZRise, an undergraduate team from CARIMAC who developed an online marketplace platform that connects businesses and brands with Caribbean creative influencers and content creators; second, Fresh Fuel, an undergraduate team from the School of Engineering; third, Team Ouro Preto represented by Dr. Leighton Ellis a UWI Faculty member also from the School of Engineering. Fresh Fuel is a start-up looking into the development of modular anaerobic digestion technology for implementation in Jamaica and across the wider Caribbean, while Ouro Preto is a business that converts organic waste to composting material for gardening and farming purposes.

Other prizes included the JMMB Joan Duncan Foundation Award for Corporate Social Responsibility won by Team T&S Delivery and the Baymac Award for Digital Transformation and Implementation which was won by Team Swaze.

At the finals, Mrs. Sabrina HoSang Jordan, CEO, Caribbean Food Delights announced that the HoSang family will be contributing US$20,000 in additional support to the Vincent HoSang Entrepreneurship Programme at the Mona School of Business and Management (MSBM).

Dr. David McBean, Executive Director of the MSBM in his remarks stated, “We remain dedicated to ensuring that the UWIVC moves business ideas from mere concepts up the value chain to commercially viable entities that are market ready as we work towards playing a more integral role in the strengthening of the local entrepreneurial ecosystem.”

This was supported by representatives of co-sponsors, JMMB Joan Duncan Foundation Chairman Patricia Duncan Sutherland and Nari Williams-Singh, Director General of the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority.

The excellent Donna-Marie Rowe

Donna-Marie Rowe receiving Gleaner Honour Award for JIS 

We note the departure of Donna-Marie Rowe from the Jamaica Information Service (JIS), after 21 years at the organisation, the last thirteen of which she served as Executive Director. We know that in yesteryear this post is vacated quite swiftly as soon as there is a change of administration. It is a reflection of Mrs Rowe’s excellence that she was retained in the top post for 13 years under both PNP and JLP governments.

When you Google “Jamaica,” JIS is usually near the top, having developed under Mrs Rowe’s watch into a dependable and timely source of information on our various Government ministries and agencies.

Clearly Donna-Marie Rowe will continue to make her mark wherever she decides to go. We will miss her at the JIS, and we are grateful for the high standard she has set at the organisation.

Speaking positivity

 I am posting this very late after publication but it still has value.

Jean

Published in the Jamaica Observer 3 Jan 2022 

Jean Lowrie-Chin

Archbishop Tutu - photo from Africa Report 

What will we write on this clean sheet of 2022? Let us look to the lives of two beloved figures who we lost recently for inspiration: Archbishop Desmond Tutu and actor and comedian Betty White. They loved, they laughed and they never stopped working.

My brag is that my sister Frances met and spoke with Archbishop Tutu when he visited her late boss Bishop Walker of the Episcopalian Diocese of Washington. She enthused, “Bishop Tutu could be the best stand-up comedian in the world” after he left them in stitches at the meeting. So here was a man who did not take himself very seriously, but took the pain of apartheid into his heart and helped to heal his beloved South Africa. At his funeral over the weekend, South African Prime Minister Cyril Ramaphosa said, “He was our moral compass … he was the conscience of South Africa.” The beloved Archbishop requested “the cheapest coffin possible” and asked that his ashes be planted at the root of a tree. Because, of course, he knew that his mortal condition would be giving way to immortal glory to which no funereal trimmings could compare.

At 87, Betty White co-starred as Grandma Annie in ‘The Proposal’ and at 88 was host of the legendary Saturday Night Live (SNL), cracking jokes with style and aplomb. SNL alum Seth Myers posted on social media: “RIP Betty White, the only SNL host I ever saw get a standing ovation at the after party. A party at which she ordered a vodka and a hotdog and stayed till the bitter end.” She was the antithesis of the airhead Rose Nylund she played to the hilt in ‘The Golden Girls,’ celebrating ageing with humour.

You get energy from these great humans. We have excellent examples right here in Jamaica: the late Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart, Karl Hendrickson and Audrey Stewart-Hinchcliffe. None of these three had anything much of an inheritance. They built their businesses from the ground up and used every failure to create their next success. That indefatigable patriot Stewart-Hinchcliffe declared when she received the CCRP Living Legacy Award last November, “I am a young 82: retirement is not on my agenda!”

You get energy from stories of pain and persistence, like that of Richard Williams, the father of Venus and Serena Williams. The movie ‘King Richard’ starring Will Smith shows the dedication of a father who would not quit on his dream for his daughters. In their humble household, education remained number one as he insisted that his children should have straight ‘A’s and be multi-lingual to stay in the game of tennis. And so, his daughter Serena wowed the French press when she answered their questions in their language after winning the French Open.

You get energy from working hard but happy. “Have fun,” Richard Williams told his daughters as they headed into their games. Williams wrote on a piece of cardboard that he hung on the fence of the tennis court: ‘If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.’

During our Advent Crusade, our Pastor, Dr Howard Thompson, used the symbols of gift-wrapping to challenge us to offer up ourselves in the New Year. That offering was up to us, he said but we must resolve to make it. Now that is something to consider in a country where there is great mourning for those who passed from Covid and other illnesses, from traffic crashes and most tragic of all, from murder. Even if we have nothing material to give, we can make a call to listen with love and understanding. We can turn off our devices and giving special attention to the children and elderly in our families.

None of us is planning to fail in 2022 but are we doing what our friend Gordon Swaby keeps reminding us to do: “Ignore the noise. Focus and execute.” We need to listen to this young man – whose EduFocal has helped tens of thousands of Jamaican students and posted recently, “1/EduFocal x Transport Authority x BCIC Driver Training platform officially launched. Come January 10, 2022 we will be onboarding more than 10,000 public passenger vehicle drivers on our platform (phase 1). More than 2 years of work went into this. Very happy about today!”

As Mandela said, “It always seems impossible until it is done.” Go for it in 2022!

Growth despite Covid

Dr Nigel Clarke - photo from Loop Jamaica 

Recent Statin findings are that our Jamaican economy grew by 5.8 percent in the quarter ending September 2021, compared to the previous year. Minister of Finance and Planning Dr Nigel Clarke noted, “The services component of our economy, which accounts for approximately 75 percent of economic output, grew by 7.1 percent in aggregate.” Hotels and restaurants enjoyed a whopping 114.6 percent increase.

We have to be grateful to the members of the Economic Programme Oversight Committee (EPOC), chaired by Keith Duncan who was also recently re-elected President of the PSOJ. This man is passionate about his country’s development, dedicating his time and his own resources to ensure full disclosure on the status of main drivers of our economy.

Duncan noted this growth and spoke with optimism at last month’s EPOC press briefing. However, his warning of the arrival of the Omicron variant is now coming to pass: “With the inevitable arrival of the Omicron variant of the virus … we could see the anticipated fourth wave of COVID-19 impact. Efforts to contain the spread locally and internationally could see restrictions on economic activities in the domestic and international markets, which could lead to a slowdown in travel and disruptions in production and distribution.”

People who are not vaccinated are not only playing with their own lives, but also with the future of our country.

Back to school

Education Minister Fayval Williams says her Ministry has passed over 800 infant, primary and secondary schools for safe re-opening. Please teachers and parents, our children need to get back to school. One lady who lives in the inner city told me they are “running wild” in the lanes. She said there is a seven-year-old smoking ganja on her lane and that he has absolutely no supervision.

Both UNICEF Jamaica has conducted studies showing extreme learning loss among Jamaican children, and has called on the authorities to reopen schools in an open letter supported by other stakeholders, the Business Process Industry Association of Jamaica (BPIAJ), Jamaica Association of Principals of Secondary Schools (JAPSS), Jamaica Chamber of Commerce (JCC), Jamaica Employers Federation (JEF), Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association (JMEA), Jamaica Youth Advocacy Network (JYAN) and National Parent-Teacher Association of Jamaica (NPTAJ).

“Jamaica’s children have lost an estimated 1.3 billion in-class hours over 19 months of physical school closures. The learning loss is staggering. The most vulnerable children who struggle to access remote education have been hit the hardest,” noted the letter dated October 2021.

It continues: “We call on the government to urgently ensure the safe face-to-face re-opening of Jamaica’s schools and to remove any barriers that stand in the way, including vaccination targets for schools. .... This has been done elsewhere, and we can do it too.”

Keith Duncan and Donna Duncan-Scott honoured at 2022 AFJ Jamaica Charity Gala

Keith Duncan and Donna-Duncan Scott, Ambassador Glen Holden (ret.) Honored by the American Friends of Jamaica (AFJ) in Miami New York, NY - April 29, 2022 - Forty years ago, the American Friends of Jamaica, Inc. (AFJ) was founded on the vision that all people should have access to opportunity - a vision that remains unchanged today. The portico at Miami's Perez Art Museum (PAMM) was the venue for the AFJ's 2022 comeback gala on Friday, April 29th.  The sold-out affair honored Ambassador Glen Holden, former United States Ambassador to Jamaica together with Jamaican business leaders and philanthropists, Keith Duncan and Donna Duncan-Scott.  Sponsors included JetBlue, BankUnited, JMMB Group. Glen Holden served as US Ambassador to Jamaica from 1984 to 1993 in his official capacity.  He has since continued his commitment to helping Jamaican people by serving on the Board of the AFJ for nearly 40 years.  Ambassador Holden is recognized throughout the insurance and financial industry for his innovative leadership policies which opened significant industry expansion and developments in effect until today. Keith Duncan is the President of the Jamaica Private Sector Organization (PSOJ) and CEO of JMMB Group.  Donna Duncan-Scott is the Executive Director at JMMB.  Keith Duncan was recognized for his leadership and business impact.  Donna Duncan was recognized for her contribution to humanitarian efforts in Jamaica. To date, the AFJ has dispersed over U$16 Million to valid programs across Jamaica.  Patrons at the Gala enjoyed an inspirational evening as the organization showcased beneficiary programs in Education, Healthcare and Economic Development.  The Holden Legacy Fund, ProjectStar and GK Food Bank were also highlighted.  The night raises funds for the AFJ's discretionary grants and donor advised grants. It was a night of glitz, glamour and fun for a purpose.  The Gala began with island themed drinks and small-bites followed by a three course dinner and the presentation of awards.  Dancing to Grammy nominated band Inner Circle and DJ Richie D made for an energetic and fun party vibe.  Novel table top arrangements featuring things Jamaican, i.e., coconuts, orchids, driftwood, starfish, seashells, sugar cane and the island's famous scotch bonnet peppers made for great table conversations. The silent auction featured a unique collection of art, jewelry, luxury vacation experiences, Jamaican coffee as well as other products from the island.  Artists Richard Natoo and Oneika Russell were present and engaged patrons throughout the evening.  Both artists are from AFJ grantee, Kingston Creative. In attendance were AFJ Board Chair Wendy Hart, Board Members Ambassador Sue Cobb, Ambassador Pamela Bridgewater, Christopher Ohrstrom, Roddy Klotz, Kathleen Newman, Barron Channer, Executive Director Caron Chung, Mayor of Broward County Dale Holness, Consul General Oliver Mair, popular entertainer Walshy Fire. About the AFJ The American Friends of Jamaica, Inc. (AFJ) is a registered 501c3 nonprofit built on the principles of service and philanthropy, established to render assistance in the areas of Education, Healthcare and Economic Development.  The AFJ Grant Cycle begins in November each year and grants are distributed in April of the following year.  The AFJ takes pride in the fact that all former United States Ambassador to Jamaica continue to serve on their Board.    Contact Info The American Friends of Jamaica, Inc. 1697 Broadway, Suite 501 • New York, NY 10019 • T 212-265-2550 Email: info@theafj.org Website: www.theafj.org Social Media Handle: afjcares