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Jamaica records 544 new COVID-19 cases in 24 hours
My apologies for not writing more about many other issues that concern me (and there are many important ones, especially related to the environment and climate change). However, COVID-19 has...
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Covid Reflections: Children and this third wave
Fellow blogger Susan Goffe has been following COVID-19 issues very closely. We have started talking about children, and back-to-school, recently. Coincidentally, we are expecting the first tranche of a...
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Now COVID-19 vaccines are here in Jamaica, some of us would still prefer to...
The Delta variant has “officially” arrived, the Ministry of Health and Wellness has announced. Twenty-two out of forty samples were returned from the Caribbean Public Health Agency. We are in the...
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Jamaican gender activist Linnette Vassell tells older women: “Step out of fear”
I have a mental gathering of “Jamaicans I admire” in my head. They never cease to inspire me. They are young, and older, and in between, and in all walks of life. Linnette Vassell is one. This quiet...
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A Jamaican People post
At the moment, I am celebrating Jamaicans. Not “celebrities” – I am not fond of celebrities in general. They serve no purpose, except for filling endless Instagram posts and providing employment for...
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Record numbers vaccinated in one day in Jamaica
No Movement Day #3. And it was hectic in some areas, as Jamaicans crowded vaccination centres – mostly outside the city of Kingston – in surprising numbers. Although the Government was targeting high...
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Jamaica’s public hospitals only accepting emergency cases
Jamaica has reached its most difficult and stressful point as we do our best to handle the COVID-19 pandemic. Our hospitals are now over capacity – there are no more COVID-19 beds. Concerns about...
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A Haitian bakery and the breadfruit tree
Jérémie is a town with a population of around 97,000. It is a lovely seaside town on the peninsula of south-west Haiti – that long toe that sticks out at the western end of the island of Hispaniola,...
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Working with Nature to reduce disaster risk in Jamaica
A new and significant project was launched on August 31: The “Greening Red Cross and Red Crescent Disaster and Risk Reduction: Saving Lives Through Working with Nature” (yes, that is the full name!) –...
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Jamaica’s Kids Climate Camp plants seeds of awareness
There is a perception that younger children cannot grasp climate change issues. It’s too complicated. So, at least in Jamaica, education on climate change only begins with high school students, who...
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Jamaica’s last remaining mangrove forests: a cycle of destruction and replanting
You may have noticed from previous blog posts that I am a little obsessed with mangroves – and confused, perhaps, by the Jamaican Government’s attitude towards them. It seems to be a love/hate...
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This Week: The Virtual Island Summit 2021 embraces islanders worldwide
There are several Big Things happening this week, that I should have already told you about. Island Innovation’s Virtual Island Summit is just getting under way. I believe this is the third. It is on...
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Jamaica undertakes major assessment of its food systems ahead of global UN...
Another important event tomorrow: the opening of consultations in Kingston on an assessment of Jamaica’s food systems – in other words, agricultural production and output. The workshop is organised in...
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Running with Butterflies
The recent “no movement days” and the sudden quiet of lockdowns has made us engage in more unusual activities than usual. For me, it has been clearing out cupboards and chasing butterflies. For my...
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Jamaica Update, September 13, 2021: Putting that awful August well behind us
It was an awful August, truly. Ten days in, the month had already got the thumbs down from me on many counts. The predictable but still shocking report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate...
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Government funding withdrawn from Jamaica Environment Trust’s 24-year-old...
The news that landed in my inbox today filled me with mixed emotions (mainly, anger). Despite the enormous success of the programme over the years, the Schools Environment Programme (SEP) has finally...
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Jamaica to lead PAHO Directing Council meeting
Our Ministry of Health and Wellness team, headed by Minister Christopher Tufton, has been selected to head an important meeting of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), a branch of the World...
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September 21, 2021 in Jamaica: The car that broke down, the toast that burnt,...
With tropical storms pottering around in the Atlantic (two are called Peter and Rose, the names of our nephew and niece, respectively), it has been warm and muggy in Kingston. Clouds appear and do not...
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Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) Leaders’ Declaration focuses on...
The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland is drawing nigh, and countries and groupings are lining themselves up, declaring their priorities, polishing up their...
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COVID-19 crisis in Jamaican prisons: a call for the most vulnerable to be...
In my last news update, I wrote: It was disturbing to learn recently that only 10 per cent of the prison population has been vaccinated (was a truly concerted effort to get them vaccinated ever...
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