When the Powerful Speak
In February 2003, Chairman of the highest military rank in
the USA the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Colin Powell told the United Nations
an untruth that gave public support to the eight-year war that the USA waged
with Iraq. Starting in September 2004 and for many years after, Powell said that he was relying on information that
was shared with him from official sources and so he did not deliberately mislead, but was pained by the effect that his words had had. The rhetoric at that time suggested that the USA would probably have gone to
war with Iraq at that time and the effects were felt throughout the world. Here in Jamaica petroleum products had "Gulf reference prices" built in, a euphemism for the cost of that war. I have to also add for balance that the situation in Iraq
before 2003 had been in a 20-year war with Kuwait and was the subject of many UN Security Council resolutions to be potentially harmful to its neighbours, so it was also a
matter of time before an incident would happen that would ripple across the
globe.
The Vice Chancellor of the University of the West
Indies has stated as fact that the black people in
the Caribbean are the sickest in the world on a per capita basis as a direct
consequence and legacy of slavery and colonization. He said that the Caribbean
is the diabetic and hypertensive centre of the world. The statements were made at the From Apology To
Action: CARICOM's Call For Reparatory Justice on Monday, 6 July, 2020.
Before this was said, there were some issues stated
that I am grateful to say led me to read a bit more about slavery as experienced in the Caribbean between the 1600s and 1800s.
After reading, I marvel at the silence of historians at what was said at that
press conference.
The enslaved strained against their situation and this tension erupted as revolts across the region, and there were also wars, but where are the notes that there was collective effort?
Leaders of revolts in Jamaica, as far as we know, were not communicating with the leaders in Haiti or in Cuba. Leaders in the Windward and Leeward Islands were more in communication with each other; no time was it said the explanation of the collaboration during the ongoing struggles.
I was taught that there was a rebellion in Morant Bay in 1865 that led to the abolition of the legislature and imposition of Crown Colony government. Historians have revised the events and now call it the Baptist War.
The two 18th century revolutions of the Central Caribbean and the Americas to remove regimes were that of Haiti which ended in 1804 and the independence movements of parts of Central and South America that culminated between 1825-1830. Until history is revised again, that is what is agreed.
Said at the press conference: The Caribbean governments have done well in
confronting the legacy of harm and of taking responsibility.
The speaker raised the matter of poverty so a
review of the current state of the economies would have been relevant. The
World Bank in 2020 adjusted the categories to rank the economies of countries.
As it stands, there are no Caribbean nations ranked as low income countries; three of the 55 Lower middle income countries
are Caribbean; nine of the 55
are upper middle income; and there are 14 out of 79 countries in the high income
category. However, it would also be prudent to note that Cuba and Haiti are the
most populous countries in the region which would place the living conditions
of the people of the Caribbean in middle income. It would also be interesting
to note that the high income countries on the list includes two republics:
Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago; with all the others being constituent
countries as colonies, territories or within a realm.
Said at the press conference: On attaining independence, the British colonies
were 60% illiterate. They left 60% of all the black people in the Caribbean
illiterate .
In another Linked-In post, I mentioned that the
first time a Gleaner Parliamentary Reporter mentioned education projects in the
throne speech of independent Jamaica was in 1971, nine years after
independence. The leaders were more interested in increasing financial
revenues. The 2020 Reform
of Secondary Education Report showed that in 2019, 55% of the children who
completed the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) in Grade 6 were competent in English
language and 33% cannot read. See page 63.
I will now return to examine that the Caribbean is
the sickest place in the Caribbean.
There are several modifiers in the original
statement of the Caribbean having the sickest people in the world.
- The first is per capita, meaning that we are looking at
countries in the same income bracket per person purchasing power.
- The second modifier is countries where
diabetes and hypertension are prevalent.
The International Diabetes Federation report for
2019 showed that the North America and the Caribbean region had the highest
prevalence of impaired glucose tolerance of all IDF regions – over 12%; and the
overall prevalence of diabetes in adults between ages 20 and 79 is 13.3%.
Countries that have highest prevalence of impaired
glucose tolerance that are also middle income are basically the countries of
the Caribbean. So it is like defining yourself using diabetes and GDP.
This definition ignores the website front page info
of the International Diabetes federation that 3 in 4 adults with
diabetes live in low- and middle-income countries and that almost 1 in 2
(240 million) adults living with diabetes are undiagnosed. Placed in that
context, the Caribbean or West Indies does not stand out as the sickest in the world.
This is not a benign matter because the rhetoric is to motivate the listener to support punishment of the heirs and successors of the colonial era who live in Britain. We are to use the past to patch up the deficiencies of the present.
Pause and consider the two stark cases of Haiti and
Cuba, today each has a population of eleven million. Cuba's leaders scuppered
its relationships with Spain and the USA which led it to become aligned with
the USSR. Haiti, had not seen a complete detachment from the major global players in
its strive for development. I do not know the histories, but it includes the USA and France. I suspect that the decisions of the leaders of Cuba and Haiti were not straightforward and came out of careful thought and emotional
processes.
Let us return where we started, to the Gospel of
Luke Chapter 7 where a sorrowful woman was wrongly identified as Mary Magdalene. Jesus had been asked by the religious
leaders why He and his disciples were comfortable in the company of the
unclean like this woman. Christ’s response was twofold and I will place my current thoughts on what He meant and how holders of power can apply them.
The first is the answer that Christ gave to the
Pharisees when they asked why He and his disciples were always out eating and
drinking. A lesson could be that life is a feast to enjoy when and where you can as John the Baptist did not socialise and he was called a demon.
The second part of the passage was a warning about the learned people "doctors of
the law", who place new wine in old wineskins and patched old
cloth with new cloth. If we are moving away to a new order, all of the old
order has to be put away. You have to really "move on".
Tell the stories with balance, pay respect to the
hurt, focus on the joyful task of making something new.
END
Writing this made me reflect on the stories of the past
that should be carried on as entirely as possible.
Sally the enslaved African child slave who was
repeatedly raped by the owner of Breadnut Island Pen, Westmoreland and caught
infections from him. She never stopped trying to run away. We must not forget
that we know this because Thistlewood kept a meticulous diary for 38 years
(1748 to 1786) which included the weather. This has given Jamaica an enviable
document to evaluate climate change.
Juan de Bolas, Tacky, John Mansong, Sam Sharpe and
Paul Bogle were trapped by Maroons and treated to death.
Coffee industry in Jamaica grew when Grande Blancs
fled the revolution that had overtaken Haiti.
The murder of 132 Africans who were thrown overboard from the ship the Zong in 1781 on its way to Black River Jamaica and the court and political actions that resulted from the decision that enslaved persons were chattel.
The sugar industry exposed Caribbean people to
technologies earlier than many other areas, and we took this to advance
ourselves in the wider world.
Rigid school rules of an early period and
preference for girls has allowed our culture to evolve in unique ways.
-30-
A Few Mentions of Mary Magdalene in the Bible
https://www.openbible.info/topics/mary_magdalene
Summary of her Work
Mark 16 verse 9 [[Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons.
Gospel of Luke Chapter 8 verses 2 - 3After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, 2 and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; 3 Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.
During the Passion of the Christ
Gospel of Mark Chapter 15 verse 40 Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joseph,[a] and Salome.
Mark 15:47 ESV / 277 helpful votes
Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.
Matthew 27 verses 55 - 56 Many women were also there, looking on from a distance; they had followed Jesus from Galilee and had provided for him. 56 Among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.
Luke 23 verse 49 But all his acquaintances, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.
John 19 verse 25 And that is what the soldiers did. Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.
Death
Mark 16:1 ESV / 268 helpful votes
When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him.
Resurrection
John 20:11-18 ESV / 319 helpful votes But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” ...
Luke 24:10 ESV / 246 helpful votes Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles.
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