Why are Jamaicans so stubborn about their health?

IT had to take the intervention of the Government to put measures in places to protect people who ought to have known that they should be protecting themselves against the deadly coronavirus.

Take what happened at Lime Cay and Maiden Cay last weekend — serious gyrating and merrymaking at a time when people have been warned to lie low and do their best to avoid contracting the disease that has redefined the functioning of mankind globally.

What more can the Government do with its education programme? Nothing! Jamaicans are just plain stubborn, and only resort to saying “if me did know” when something happens to them and they live to talk about it.

Entertaining one’s self is good for the body and soul, but putting the structure at risk at a time like this is not worth it. There are other ways of entertaining without the involvement of music, liquor, tobacco or ganja. Parties can be set aside in the interest of preserving and protecting life. The coronavirus will not be here forever. The people of this country can be disciplined, and can wait it out.

The development of vaccines is a major step in tackling the challenge so we should all just continue to play it safe, and take chances only when there is no other option.

When we continue to put pressure on the health sector by driving up the number of infected persons, and increasing the possibility of more deaths, we are really asking for a continuation of trouble.

As the new year emerged, the disappointing news of one of Jamaica’s top-shelf reggae artistes of all time, Beenie Man, being implicated in respect of a breach in COVID-19 protocols popped up like an unwelcome sore foot.

When will people like Beenie Man learn? When? Here is another artiste — another man who thousands of people look up to for guidance, doing the kind of rubbish that will take this country nowhere. Is prison the option?

Bring on the Cuban vaccines

WHENEVER the Cuban medical officials signal that any of the vaccines the country is developing to fight against COVID-19 is ready and available to Jamaicans, I will be the first in the queue.

There is no other medical system in the world that I trust over Cuba’s. The people of that north Caribbean island have shown that despite the suffocation from the 60-year-old blockade by the United States, they have managed to lead the world in health care and must be the undisputed champion in that discipline.

Can you imagine what this global space would be like if Cuba had been receiving the support from the western world towards the advancement of medicine? Well, I have been to that country and seen, first-hand, what such a resilient and talented people can do to — as the Jamaican saying goes — “tun you han mek fashion”.

As one who is terrified of needles, the feeling of being injected by Cuban medics could result in such a fear of the pointed objected being significantly reduced, or eradicated totally.

The fact that two of the vaccines being developed by the Cubans do not require the kind of storage at low temperatures that the Pfizer vaccine now being used in North America and elsewhere does, is something that strikes me as even more welcoming.

Let me take my chance with a vaccine developed by the Cubans. Indeed, they are the ones in whom I have invested the most faith, as far as health care goes.

Real Chat is the real deal

MY good friends in media, Curtis Myrie and Stratton Palmer have embarked on a novel plan of running a weekly, Internet-based talk show called Real Chat, which began in late October and goes deep into social issues, and sports matters.

One programme even had the Anglican Lord Bishop Howard Gregory in an exceedingly interesting discussion.

The three-hour show, aired on YouTube on Thursdays from 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm, will resume on January 7, after a break for the Christmas period, and I look forward to tuning in as soon as it returns.

Palmer has vast knowledge of all issues. He attended Kingston College, but that alone does not make him special. He represented KC at hockey, Manning Cup football and I believe cricket, and went on to play hockey for Jamaica — but it is his incredible knowledge of the Jamaican landscape, and beyond, that makes him a standout.

Myrie went to St George’s College. You can decide if that is good or bad. He is known to have tried wrestling, and dominos with zero success; and kalooki too. But what is sparkling about this gutsy individual is the body of work that he has been able to produce in media over 40 years — a truly outstanding script when that is to be revealed.

Real Chat is the real thing.

Confirmed: It’s the Worst Indies

THOSE who wish to dream can do so. If by any stroke of a miracle the West Indies (seems more like Worst Indies now) win a match or matches on their tour of Bangladesh later this month, that would likely be because the hosts want them to.

The squads for Bangladesh are horrendously weak, and to add further insult to injury they are led by two individuals who should be nowhere near an aggregation, based upon their performance in international cricket.

It has been said before, but it is worth repeating, that the choice of Roger Harper as chairman of selectors is a dreadful one, and we are seeing it all too clearly again.

By persisting with Kraigg Brathwaite as a player, and now Test captain, Harper and his team of stooges are continuing the destruction of West Indies cricket, which escalated under the leadership of Whycliffe Cameron and is now massaged by the Ricky Skerritt-led administration.

Oh yes, there will be talk that 10 players who would normally have been selected for the Bangladesh tour opted out of it because of COVID-19 concerns, but what has caused some of these players to become so powerful that they can now pick, choose, and refuse, as the saying goes, tours as they please? It comes down to the administration of the day.

West Indies cricketers are often like softies…crybabies who jump in the bed and draw the sheets when the challenge seems tight. When I look at players like Darren Bravo, the child of the region; Keemo Paul, who should not even be lacing up for a good club team; Shimron Hetmyer, who still does not know how to bat; and others now staying away from combat in an environment that would guarantee their safety more than anywhere else in the Caribbean, I cringe.

It then leads back to administration…the selectors, coaches and others who allow these prima donnas to do as they please and leave West Indies cricket at the mercy of the executioners. There has to be some toughness from the administrators to say, “Look, you cannot continue to back out on us like that when the battle gets heated.”

And so, we end up with Brathwaite leading a Test team that he should not have been on; John Campbell continuing to make a fool of himself with the bat, despite a half-century in his last innings which did not go far enough to address redemption; and Jason Mohammed at the helm of a one-day squad that he should never be around. It’s a shame.