A Jamaican In Exile

 https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/opinion/are-you-one-of-the-people-covid-19-loves-_219696?profile=1096 I hold no brief for anti vaxers but growing numbers believe that what’s right and wrong — especially where it concerns the rights of marginalised groups such as virus deniers and the anti vax movement to say how they feel and to not accept the vaccine are sufficiently self-evident they shouldn’t be up for debate. However, social media has banned their ability to be heard and here in Canada at least one pastor has been jailed for defying the restrictions. So, we all, including anti-vaxxers have the right to be heard but what happens when a pandemic threatens and the government of the day has to use an 'exception' to these rights? All of a sudden, those rights are up for debate. Who decides on the exceptions? Can power ever truly be democratised? If there is a threat to everyone by those who refuse the vaccine as governments say, what happens to democracy? For example, do I as a

  I am not an 'anti-vaxxer'. I have had several vaccines from I was a child and I get the flu vaccine every year. However, what concerns me is that those against the current Covid vaccine program are not solely 'anti-vaxxers'. For example, Prof G. Vanden Bossche, a Coordinator in the development of previous vaccines and a  supporter  of vaccines has this to say about the Covid vaccines: https://www.bitchute.com/vi... What also concerns me is that vaccines are now being used to prevent people from accessing employment, the right to travel as well as other rights and government benefits in some places. Here in Canada, the land border with the US remains closed and no travel is allowed to the Caribbean or Mexico - countries that I usually visit every winter. These barriers have devastated countries like Jamaica and Mexico that rely on tourism. Even though some like Bill Gates had warned that a pandemic was coming, the Covid pandemic came on so quickly that most were surpri

  Most of the arguments I have heard for and against the policies fighting covid (vaccines, lockdowns) lack scientific rigor as this was a new situation. However, we now have over a year of data to analyze what has happened.  The anti-vax  movement claims this is a a manufactured crisis around a virus that is 90+% survivable. This is the true part, the vaccine is survivable by the vast majority who get infected. Of the 3 people I know who have been infected, one has died. The suggested motives to 'manufacture' this crises range from a conspiracy by Big Pharma to Bill Gates implanting bio tracking compounds into the population or him using vaccines to poison the population as a means of population control. The anti-lockdown movement claim that the lockdowns are a means of social control and also a strategy to depress small businesses in favor of big businesses. It is also true that small businesses are suffering whereas big businesses such as Walmart and Amazon are thriving. The

 https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/kd-knight-more-women-will-be-victims-lawyer-says-others-will-die-in-jamaica-if-there-isn-t-any-intervention_218824?profile=1606 Mr. Knight has identified a critical problem in Jamaica. That is the nature of our politics. The partisan, first past the post system we have in Jamaica encourages division, one upmanship, clientelism and failure leading to the now widespread cynicism towards politics by the majority of Jamaicans who don't even bother to vote anymore. The problem is the solution is a political one involving electoral and constitutional reform as well - things for which there is zero political traction because of the current system. No political party in Jamaica has the vision that involves electoral and constitutional reform so Mr. Knight is correct - crime will continue it's march, more women will die. What is needed is a 'reset' something which I thought this pandemic would cause but so far, that has not happened. In some