Children Are No Longer Old Age Pension

The high bushy unkept grass surrounded a box style unpainted house. This little house stood out among adjacent homes that boasted elaborate room additions within beautiful fenced walls. Who lived at this house that appeared in its original rough-looking state that was delivered upon purchase so many years ago. Why was nothing ever done to enhance the plain original structure - not even a fence? "What? She had nine children!", shouted a neighbor to another as they looked at the property of the elderly lady who had recently passed away. No one in the area could have imagined that this lady had nine children as they didn't remember seeing any of them coming to visit their mother. "Yes", said one lady who was a close friend to the deceased woman. "She often visited some of them in Kingston until Covid when she could no longer travel so far to see them or even wanted to leave the house." "She also has those children who live abroad." "Nine adult children and not even one could make an effort to bring joy to their mother by helping her to fix up her house!" exclaimed one neighbor. Years ago, some people in Jamaica would say that their children are their old age pension. Not even having nine children is a guarantee that even one will be there to assist when parents become old. Time has changed!

The Day Jamaica Stood Up To Against England

December 21, 2020, should be remembered as a day when Jamaica got one up over the United Kingdom. No, it was not a victory in winning a cricketmatch. It was the day Jamaica closed its borders to England due to England's reported new Covid strain. No one would ever have predicted that such a day would come to pass when Jamaica would stand up to their mighty former colonizer. No one would have thought that Jamaica would eventually have shown their independence after tolerating England's mistreatment of and profiting off the backs of their slave ancestorsas they toiled the land; disrespected Windrush Immigrants whose hard work for many years was met with the threats of deportation and actual deportations; revoked the ability of Jamaicans to effortlessly travel to England that enslaved their ancestors for centuries etc., etc., etc., Next for Jamaica is to remove the queen as head of state. It is time to take a stand against England and the time is now! 

What's Up with 'Dat'!: Jamaica - Land of Sun, Fun, and Jungle Justice

What's Up with 'Dat'!: Jamaica - Land of Sun, Fun, and Jungle Justice: Jamaica has always been promoted as a tourist destination that is welcoming to all visitors who want to get away from their monotonous l...

Don't Waste Time With SERHA - Just Sue

The South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA) is intended to be the watch dog of the public hospitals throughout Jamaica. When patients experience injustices, they are expected to use SERHA as an outlet to investigate their issues and provide non-biased findings. Wrong!! The SERHA consists of hospital personnel who are investigating the wrong doings of their own workers. So, don't expect an SERHA investigator to contact you while conducting the investigation much less present findings that will chastise any medical personnel. The results will always come back inconclusive and pat the hospital personnel on the back with a final report that their personnel only acted in the best interest of the patient and did absolutely nothing wrong. The only involvement the concerned party will have is participating in a wrap-up meeting with a hospital executive and other leaders to share the hospital's findings and to obtain that person's signature and comments to close out the case. That's all anyone will get ...nothing more.  So, what's the next best option to resolve government hospital injustices that recently include the stealing of babies and the removal of a woman's uterus without her permission? Don't waste time contacting the Ministry of Health or SERHA - just find all possible ways to gather finances to hire an attorney to sue the hospital system. That is the only way any action will be taken to address health injustices at the public hospitals in Jamaica

Baby Stolen At Victoria Jubilee

Baby Stolen At Cornwall Regional Hospital

No Elevators for Pregnant Mothers at Hospital

KPH Problems

Buildings Without Consideration for People With Disabilities

  

Jamaica is an island where social services for persons with disabilities are not commonly seen throughout the country. So, people with disabilities have to contend with the daily difficulties that impede their ability to be self-sufficient during their daily movements outside their homes. Even today, newly constructed commercial buildings are not attainable to those persons with disabilities which means that they have continued to experience problems accessing not only the top level floors but even the first level. This problem was commonly noticed in the new city of Portmore where recently constructed buildings such as a medical complex, which is expected to cater to the sick and people with disabilities, do not provide them with accommodations to get  to the upper level floors. Since previous and current Jamaican governments has never given any attention to even the buildings they occupy, there is no surprise in their lack of efforts in introducing laws that ensure that commercial buildings throughout the island are constructed with disability access.

New Secondary Schools in Jamaica Set Up To Fail

The educational system in Jamaica creates a dividing environment that has throughout the years set up the new secondary schools to fail. These schools have been established since the 1940s, and at that time,  were known then as senior schools. Subsequent name changes were made for them to be called: junior secondary schools, new secondary schools, and eventually high schools. While the Ministry of Education plays with the name changes, it slyly diverts from the main issue by making no effort to balance the new secondary schools' enrollment with high achiever that normally gravitate to the traditional high schools. Throughout the years, these new secondary schools have developed a stigma that has left a negative, lasting impression on those young primary school and prep school children and their parents who will not consider those new secondary schools as suitable institutions to attend when asked to make the preferred high school choices. So, of course, the traditional high schools that have made a name for themselves over the years have continued to be considered as first choices to attend versus the new secondary schools. Therefore, the Ministry of Education, while under both the PNP and JLP leaderships, have continued to maintain the divisive practice that permits the brightest students to gravitate to certain traditional schools which, of course, will always produce many students who excel academically. On the other hand, the governments' intentional oversight or convenient silence of the need to balance students enrollment in all secondary schools based on students' varied learning abilities mean that the nation will continue with the age-old problem of segregating students from each other on their academic capabilities. This system has been ingrained in the mentality of Jamaicans since the British colonial era. So, the problem does not stop with the secondary schools, as it continues to adulthood in a country that promotes classism. Undoing a poor educational system that has been in place over decades would be a challenge especially since it may be met with objections from those stakeholders who will do all that is possible to maintain the backward colonial policies that divide students based on their academic abilities. An education system that relegates some students to succeed and others to fail does not benefit a country's development.

Education System Fosters Majority Failing Underclass

Port Authority of Jamaica - Pension Double Standards

Many may remember the 2016 report of Paula Monroe-Ellis, the Auditor General, that uncovered how the Port Authority of Jamaica's board members authorized outrageous multi-million dollar "golden parachute" pension payments to three senior officers with one receiving over $146 million dollars in pensions and gratuity. These officers had initially been entitled to pricey pension packages when the board disregarded government guidelines and approved exorbitant multi-million dollar payouts to their colleagues. Furthermore, the auditor's report uncovered that this same board at the Port Authority of Jamaica under the leadership of Messrs. Hilton and Shirley authorized payments of over $15 million in gratuity to other senior officers. However, while the decision makers at Port Authority of Jamaica did not hesitate in authorizing multi-million dollar pension increases to their equals, pension increase requests of low income level retirees do not stand a chance of any consideration although these retirees can barely survive on the minimum pension payments as they struggle daily with the constant rising costs of living. Port Authority of Jamaica's CEO and also the vice president of Human Resources' reasoning for denial of pension increase in one particular case is that the employee signed a pension contract, so the retiree is bound by the signed document. Yet, this frivolous reasoning did not seem to apply to those senior officers who were given multi-million dollar increases although they too signed and were bound by an initial pension agreement. The curt, unsympathetic response from the Port Authority of Jamaica's executives to the retiree's pension increase request is an example that in Jamaica there still exists a blatant disregard for those with no influence while systematic class-based preferential treatment continues to be shelled out to the connected and affluent.
Senior Port Authority Officers Get Multimillion-Dollar Payments To Which They Are Not Entitled