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 th...

 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...

  https://youtu.be/KRch-50w28s Apostle Peter Chambers arrested for making threats against The Prime Minister of Jamaica 🇯🇲 Arrested under cyber crimes act for using language online and or social media which amounts to threat against the life or limb of the Prime Minister Andrew H... youtu.be  I have been warning people that those who stand up to the political establishment will suffer and be punished. There are consequences of speaking truth to power. As one who has been there and done that, I know......I watched this video and I did not hear anything illegal. The amounts of money he had are also not illegal to hold and no explanation to the police is legally required. Churches are tax exempt so the tax authorities cannot claim it. Preachers call down death on who they perceive to be sinners all the time.  The Bible has examples where God punished those who like Pharaoh, tried to block the people of Jehovah.  Many pastors only source of income is from their congregatio...

 http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/commentary/20210322/ronald-thwaites-studying-what-we-know-already I upvoted this excellent writing which clearly outlines the problem. The 'reset' needed is the voucher system. Each family would get a voucher from the government for each child. The monetary value of these vouchers would lead to an explosion in new private schools of varying quality competing with each other leading to the survival of the best. This would encourage a public/private partnership to compete with public education and give the parents of poor children the ability to benefit from the high quality private schools. Such a proposal is difficult to bring in as the Teachers' Unions and their minions in the Ministry of Education (mostly former teachers and union officials) fight tooth and nail against empowering families in this way. To too many teachers, education is their business and the narrow focus of the unions is better pay and working conditions for their memb...

https://worldhappiness.report/ 'Happiness' is one of those things that are relative - it is difficult to measure. Canada is just one step above the USA in this ranking. Some of the 'happiest' countries are also some of the coldest. Does a cold climate help? None of them have huge armies instead focusing on social development. None of them have huge crime problems. Finland is the safest country in the world so no wonder they are number one! What is interesting in this report is that authoritarian, dictatorial countries are way down in happiness. Cuba was not mentioned so the Cuban government may not have allowed the survey but China (87) is way down on the list, much lower than Jamaica, so democracy is important. China may be safe but it is not a happy place. Even though I consider Canada a fairly successful country, Canada (15th) is found wanting in this index. According to Forbes Magazine, 'Finland has long been praised by a multitude of international bodies for it...