I got some brickbats last week for not being more abrasive. I hope those critics will read between the lines and understand more deeply my reflections on governance. I should explain why I write the way I do. I believe we all have our roles to play in media. I see mine as helping to show that, despite our many challenges, Jamaica is still a country of great promise.

I have reason to believe this. I signed my first contract for our business, PROComm, in November 1978, when there was mass migration from Jamaica. With a hard-working team, we have never missed a payday since we opened our doors in January 1979. In 2013, we launched a real estate development company, PRODEV, and last May we broke ground for an office complex at Phoenix Avenue which is nearing completion. We are dedicated to pro bono projects, including the Caribbean Community of Retired Persons, which we founded, fund and operate to empower seniors.

We soldier on, because we have had the support of Jamaicans who are some of the finest human beings in this world, but who are not necessarily headliners. It was my mother, Maisie Lowrie, who lent me her small savings to start my business, along with my dad’s office furniture and manual typewriter, as he had passed away two years before. My husband, Hubie Chin, who does not subscribe to that backward pastor’s belief that one should not marry a feminist, has been a rock, joining and expanding our business, and our clients have inspired us with their own purposeful investment and job-creation programmes. So, dear readers, let all views contend, including the positive ones.

Celebrating P J Patterson’s 80th

Call us sentimental, but my mother and I have a special place in our hearts for former Prime Minister P J Patterson, who has arrived at his 80th birthday in good health. He shares the same birthdate with my dad, Joscelyn Lowrie, a widely respected chartered accountant who passed away shortly after his 50th birthday in 1977. We decided that we would celebrate Patterson’s birthday by making special awards in his honour to the scholars in an education programme we have sponsored since 2001 through the Stella Maris Foundation in Grant’s Pen.

Our first scholar, Etmour Williams had chosen Calabar when he did the Common Entrance in 2002 because he wanted to go to “the prime minister’s school”. He recently gained his degree in accounting. Our current top scholar, Sashwana Chance has aced her CSEC exams and is gearing for tertiary studies.

We visited Patterson’s office last Tuesday to make presentations to Etmour and Sashwana, and they hung on his every word as he counselled them to keep their standards high and not succumb to peer pressure. He explained that, as a resident in the Shortwood area for decades, he considered Grant’s Pen a part of his neighbourhood. He recalled the early days of the then quiet neighbourhood, and charged the young residents to be leaders so that the area can continue its positive recovery. I could not help thinking that his deliberate way of speaking and his emphasis on the importance of education reminded me so much of my dear father. P J Patterson has been an inspiring role model to many young Jamaicans. Etmour and Sashwana left his office feeling affirmed and energised by his kind reception. Here’s to his continued good health!

Legends at MAJ Golden Jubilee

The Medical Association of Jamaica celebrated its Golden Jubilee with a rich weeklong programme including events addressed by two legends: Jamaican-Canadian Professor Herbert Ho Ping Kong (HPK) and UWI Chancellor Professor Sir George Alleyne.

The great HPK, described by his home country’s Globe & Mail as “as brilliant as TV’s ‘House’…but nicer”, is author of The Art of Medicine — now required reading at many medical schools. Celebrating his 50th year as a doctor, the UWI graduate gave thanks for the guidance of his own professors: Eric Cruikshank, Ronnie Irvine, Rolf Richards, Don Christian, Knox Hagley, Orrin Barrow, and Sir Harry Annamunthodo.

He welcomed the advances in his field, but urged doctors to “practise the art of medicine”. This he describes as “using your God-given faculties not just to see, feel and hear,” but practise “being compassionate, being kind”. He challenged them to “think outside the box” if there appears to be no cure. He recounted the well-nigh-impossible condition of a 23-year-old man whose life he was able to save. “Thank you for allowing me to live to see my grandchild,” the man wrote to him 45 years later.

Professor Alleyne urged the MAJ to be strong advocates to combat non-communicable diseases (NCDs), mainly cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and chronic respiratory disease. “There are obviously other chronic non-communicable diseases, but these four are responsible for 82 per cent of all NCD deaths,” noted Professor Alleyne. “When I refer to the dominant risk factors for NCDs, I include tobacco use, the harmful use of alcohol, physical inactivity, and improper diet.”

Professor Alleyne observed: “According to WHO [Word Health Organization], there were 15.4 thousand deaths from NCDs in Jamaica in 2012, and these accounted for 75 per cent of all deaths, with cardiovascular disease being responsible for 37 per cent. NCDs are the leading cause of mortality and morbidity in Jamaica and represent an enormous economic burden.”

Further, Professor Alleyne said that many of these deaths had been unnecessarily painful. “Data from the Pain and Policies Study Group of the University of Wisconsin show that per capita consumption of that drug [morphine] in Jamaica in 2012 was 1.93mg, as compared to the average for the region of the Americas of 30.6mg per person,” he said. “This means that there must be large numbers of Jamaicans who die with pain that could be relieved by oral morphine which costs pennies.”

He called on doctors to be advocates for their people, quoting Rudolf Virchow, whom he said was “one of the greatest medical activists of all time, who just over 150 years ago laid a special charge on our profession”: “Doctors are the natural advocates of the poor, and social problems are largely within their jurisdiction.”

This quote reminded me of the initiative of Dr Shane Alexis, the current MAJ president, who led a team to help in rescue operations two days after the Haiti earthquake, and the important work also of his predecessors.

Dr Jean Small, Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur

Guyana-born and Jamaica-adopted Dr Jean Small was conferred with the highest honour of France, Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, by Ambassador of France Jean-Michel Despax, at a reception in her honour on Thursday. The citation recounted her 50 years as an educator, playwright and performer, who has shared the language and culture of France with thousands. The brilliant septuagenarian said the honour belonged to her avid students who had made her life meaningful. Congratulations, Dr Jean!

lowriechin@aim.com

www.lowrie-chin.blogspot.com

PJ Patterson w Scholars.jpg

CAP:

Former Prime Minister P J Patterson sits with PROComm/Stella Maris scholars Etmour Williams and Sashwana Chance.