The YMCA has been around for close to 100 years. It has seen better days, and even used to be a place for families to gather and socialize. It is still a hub of activity, however, with swimming lessons, Tae Kwon Do and various programs for young students.

Today, the YMCA held a ‘doors open’ day for the general public to visit and learn more about its programs. I visited my friend Jason, who teaches sexual health and education classes there. There were several displays, including jewelry made by special needs students. I bought a cute pair of earrings, JA colours, for about $1.50 (Canadian).

There was also free HIV/STI testing by the Ministry of Health, which operates free mobile testing programs in underserved communities. According to Nastasia, one of the testers, 29 people came through today.

One thing that takes getting used to here in Jamaica is the pace. Everything, except the driving, is slower. The Jamaica Gleaner is currently running a series on this topic. Their reporters have spent time in banks, businesses and hospitals to track how long people have to wait in line. Waits of two or three hours are not uncommon. It is such a problem that some bosses dock their workers’ pay when they do not return on time to finish their work. Hardly seems fair.

There is a saying here, “Soon come,” that expresses this attitude. Basically, things will happen when they happen, not necessarily on a schedule or on time. This “island time” attitude works well for the tourist trade, but clearly, not so much for Jamaicans trying to live and work here. It is such a problem that in quantifiable terms, Jamaica ranks near the bottom in a study on countries’ productivity by the World Bank. Here are some of the findings:

Jamaica’s ranking on the World Bank’s Doing Business 2012 scale:

Ease of doing business – 90

Registering property – 105

Paying taxes – 163

I can attest to the slower pace, but my experience with waiting has not been that bad. Even working as a reporter right now I am pleasantly surprised at how quickly people are getting back to me, providing information and answering the phones. Wonder if my privileged status has anything to do with it? In any case, take a read of the Gleaner’s story

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Every encounter with another human being changes us, sometimes profoundly, but most often in just tiny, incidental increments. Yesterday I had one of those encounters that altered the way I will move forward in the world. Because of the roughly 60 minutes I spent with a 15-year-old girl from suburban Kingston, I will now conduct myself with more courage, more compassion and more awe for the resilience of the human spirit.

I am working with a media outlet called Global Reporters for the Caribbean/18 Degrees North on a story on Jamaican youth. I don’t want to reveal too much, but the subject matter has to do with youth who have been in adult prison. This young woman I talked to yesterday spent three months in a federal, adult prison. Her crime? She ran away from home for two weeks to visit her father, so she was deemed “uncontrollable.” This is a legal designation the government employs to take custody of Jamaican youth who having negative contacts with the law. I was left both shaken up and in awe of this young woman and what she has been through and how she is managing to get her life back.

I also interviewed Lt. Col. Sean Prendergast, Commissioner for the Department of Correctional Services. He also had a lot to say, most of which was very polite, neutral and general.

At first, I felt a little rusty doing interviews yesterday, especially because I have not done much television. It came back to me though. I was even able to conduct the interview with the 15-year-old in Patois (only her, not me) and understand about 95 per cent of what she said. (I cannot reveal her identity, but when we were discussing what pseudonym she could use, she first suggested “Kim”. Then she decided that no, too many people are named Kim. I then jokingly suggested using a ‘white girl name’ that not many Jamaicans have, like Kate. She liked that, so she will be known as “Kate” for the story.) The cameraman’s assistant asked me after if I got everything she had said, and I realized that I did, in fact. He was impressed, especially when I said I’ve been in Jamaica just over a year. This was a nice end to a whirlwind day.

Check out more about GRC/18 Degrees North here:
http://www.18degreesnorth.tv
Twitter @18DegreesNorth
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/18-Degrees-North/500827133307854?fref=ts
YouTube to show reel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=va_DWKyOR6o

Stay tuned for the story.

A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting in a meeting with fellow Cuso volunteers. We were in Ocho Rios and it was a Saturday. I was taking notes on a colleague’s presentation when a fellow volunteer whispered to me: “You might want to check YOU’s Twitter account, I think you’ve been hacked.” I immediately rushed down to the lobby where I was able to get wifi. Sure enough, someone had hacked Youth Opportunities Unlimited’s Twitter account. Not only had they hacked it, but they had sent out dozens of sexually suggestive links to what I presume were porn web sites.

I was deeply upset by this, although we are in good company. But YOU is a charitable NGO that works with at-risk youth. Really? You are going to hack that kind of organization? I know it is nothing personal. In fact, I suspect it was a spambot, ie not a live human being. Nevertheless, it was disturbing. I changed the password, apologized online to YOU’s Twitter followers and responded directly to people who had kindly alerted us to this incident. Everyone was understanding. It seems most people have been hacked in some form or fashion. But it is never a pleasant experience and you always feel slightly violated. This incident has made me wonder whether or not this whole hacking/links to porn actually works. Does it generate revenue for someone somewhere? How could it benefit anyone? I guess I will never know.

On a related note, I recently noticed I have evolved in my social media/technology persona. I have been live-tweeting events for awhile now. Usually when I cover something, I automatically take a ridiculous amount of notes, even if it is not necessary, out of habit. But lately I have started only Tweeting and not taking notes. It feels kind of strange, not to be writing everything down. But at the end of last week’s event, I reviewed my Twitter feed and it was a solid and useful record of the day’s events, especially when paired with everyone else’s Tweets who were at the event. The other nice thing about this is that the whole live-Tweeting thing often sparks conversations, which often leads to people sharing information, asking pertinent questions and generally helping one another out. And afterwards, as I was writing up a report, I realized I had a nice stream of information from my Twitter feed to help me put it together.

In a way, I guess it is not really that different from being a print reporter and taking notes on paper. Everyone’s head is down in both cases, writing or typing away. You then go away and review your notes and assemble a story. A couple of major difference, though. One is the fact that you can both engage in whatever event you are at, as well as hold a parallel conversation about the event on Twitter. I wonder if this is a positive or negative development, as there is usually some snark going on about whatever is happening. The Twitter conversation also means that the event is instantly transmitted live, through the filter of those Tweeting, of course. This is sort of like the press conference broadcast live, but with Twitter you are relying on individuals to deliver the message. This means that your access to content is limited by the capacity of the ability of individual Tweeters to Tweet. So you don’t always get the whole story. (This is comparable to print reporting, i.e. you never get the full story, only the reporter’s version). This is the whole idea behind Storify, a resource for compiling social media from around the internet to tell stories.

Perhaps I am a bit late with all these musings. Actually, I am not, rather I am just fascinated with the organic way in which technology and social media seep into our lives and become second nature. The transition from pen-wielding reporter to lap-top using Tweeter happened to me so gradually and mindlessly until I realized with shock what had happened. It is quite amazing to me sheds some light on how we evolve naturally and with little deliberation.

It is mango season right now. They are in abundance, in all sizes and types. I have tried the Julie and West Indian mangoes, but not the Beefy mango, until yesterday. A friend brought me one from her tree and I was shocked at the size. It was gigantic and ripe and soooo delicious. It is about half-eaten at this point and probably won’t last much longer.

I am busily working away on two major projects coming due this week. It seems my deadlines decided to creep up all around the same time. It’s like I am back in school or the newsroom again!

Enjoy your Monday and the picture of the Beefy mango (love the name!).

In the mid-80s, a doctor named Gordy Klatt set out on a mission to raise funds for his local cancer society in the U.S. He ran around a local track for 24 hours straight and ultimately raised $27,000. Decades later, the event has spread worldwide, and last night it happened in Jamaica. The idea is that teams from different corporations and organizations walk around a track to raise funds. Some stay all night. I arrived at about 8:00 and left a couple of hours later.

There were dozens of organizations that had set up tents and a stage with many performers. We caught a reggae band and a few young performers, including one young woman who wrote an impressive song about her mother’s death as a result of cancer. It was both a festive and sombre night. The most arresting image was the track, which was lined with paper bags, upon which was written the name of a person who had lost the fight with cancer. There was a Luminaria Ceremonial lighting of these candles, as well as a beautiful prayer and song. There are few people who have not been affected by cancer, and activities such as last night’s bring home the reality of the situation. Many faces were damp with tears last night, and many people were seen comforting one another. Let’s hope the event raised a lot of money for research.

Last night we went down to the National Stadium to watch the Reggae Boyz play against the USA. It was a qualifying game for the World Cup and the Boyz did not fare well.

I have absolutely no expertise to comment on the way the Boyz played, but they looked lethargic to me. The crowd, however, was not. They were not having any of it. All around us in the bleachers, people were coaching and critiquing the entire time. My favourite part was the dude wearing a bright yellow hard hat. He yelled the entire game, danced when JA scored their lone goal and then said he was stressed out when the US scored their second goal to end the game 2-1.

People were so angry with some of the JA’s coaches choices they started to leave early. Apparently they were holding on to residual anger from Usain Bolt’s loss to USA’s Justin Gatlin earlier in the week. So bottles started flying but then the police and private security forces started filing out, assembling themselves along the perimeter of the field. They just stared out at us, the crowd, clutching their batons. Kind of creepy. But everyone left peacefully. A ton of fun! (Thanks to Althea for the pics.)

Last Sunday, Onyka and I went with the running group to a 5K race in St. Catherine. The place is called Bog Walk and the race was in an orange grove at the headquarters of the Tru Juice factory. It was cooler than Kingston and a little foggy when we got started. The actual trail was quite difficult to manage, lots of rocks and slippery grass. And my shoelaces came undone not once but twice. That has never happened to me before. I had a slow time but enjoyed running amongst the orange trees. It smelled divine in there. Onyka walked the 5K route and posted a great time. Afterwards, we limed for a bit in the little river and then headed back to Kingston. Have a great Friday!

Jamaica is a nation with a lot of “aggressive friendliness,” according to a panellist at a talk I attended yesterday that addressed youth violence from a gender perspective. Put another less euphemistic way, Jamaica can be a very violent society.

To be more specific, one in five Jamaican women experience physical or sexual abuse at some point in their lives. The homicide rate for young men is 188/100,000. Related statistics that help to explain these phenomena include the fact that twenty per cent of children are born to a teenage mother, twenty per cent of youth are unattached; 24% of young men and 38 % of young women are unemployed.

These sobering statistics provided a backdrop for the Next GENDERation Talk, titled Understanding and Addressing Youth Violence from a Gender Perspective held on June 5, 2013. This initiative “aims to raise awareness, promote discussion among youth on youth violence using a gender perspective.”

To discuss this important topic, a group of youth, educators, activists, members of civil society, government (Ministry of Yoth and Culture, Bureau of Women’s Affairs, Education) and NGOs such as the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank gathered at the comfortable Terra Nova Hotel in New Kingston to discuss violence as it relates to gender.

“This is a bold attempt to save the next generation,” The Honourable Senator Sandrea Falconer of the Office of the Prime Minister (Responsibility for Gender Affairs) told the crowd in opening remarks. Sen. Faloner also called on the entire nation to support the Next GENDERation initiative and to subscribe to Vision 2030, which aims to make Jamaica the place of choice to live, work, raise families and do business. Jamaica cannot be built on a foundation of violence, the Senator added.

Federica Marza of the World Bank then took participants through an explanation of gender, which is a social construct that dictates the roles and expectations of men and women, versus sex, which refers to an individual’s biological situation. In this light, Marza told the crowd that gender equality matters because it is both a basic human rights issue and it is smart economics. “If women are excluded from economic activity, it is a missed opportunity to create wealth,” she said.

However, it is not all bad news in Jamaica. Women have experienced advances in accessing tertiary education and healthy birth rates have increased such that Jamaica’s maternal mortality rate is still above the world average at 110 per 100,000 live births.

The University of West Indies’ Dr. Herbert Gayle was blunt about the issue of gender in Jamaica. “Gender is a mess that needs to be sorted out,” he said. This mess manifests itself in many ways, including the reality that boys are in trouble, but the bulk of funds goes to girls, he said. The Bureau of Women’s Affairs Faith Webster echoed this by saying that women have an opportunity to contribute to the confusing discussion about gender, but now is the time to include men and boys in this dialogue. A participant noted that it is also essential to discuss homophobia when talking about gender and violence.

The discussion then moved into talk about “agency,” which was defined as the “capacity to act to achieve desired objectives.” Too many Jamaican youth lack agency and an example of this would be a lack of means to attend university. Solutions to this lack of agency include aspiration, social norms, empowerment,soft skills, parenting intervention, self-esteem boosting, social interactions, public awareness campaigns and information sharing.

Federica Marza of the World Bank then went on to discuss violence, which she beautifully described as the opposite of freedom, with even the threat of violence negating one’s ability to act and achieve. Marza said there are four factors that put one at risk of experiencing violence: : poverty; community influences; interpersonal relationships; individual issues (low self-esteem).

To counter the ravages of violence and to feel empowered, said Takisha Barnes of the Ministry of Youth and Culture, youth must feel listened to and understood. Dr. Gayle of UWI added to this by saying that young people can work hard but without agency, cannot achieve. Thus, the most violent people have the most agency, he said, explaining that some people simply take the opportunities in front of them by using violence.

The triggering factors of violence usually fall under one of four categories: social norms, unemployment, lack of support and an aggressive police force. However, violence can be alleviated through skills development, education, employment, emotional support, community intervention, according to another presenter from the World Bank.

The presentations continued throughout the day, including a lively report from Ms. Audrey Cold-Crossdale, who is a Communication for Social and Behavioural Change Specialist, who told the audience that successfully relaying a message requires knowing your audience, what you want from it and what benefit you can provide to them. You must create awareness, arouse interest, stimulate desire and induce action, she said.

The remainder of the day consisted of role playing and more sessions about gender and violence, but we could not stay. Judging by audience reaction and participation, it was a successful day.

All of a sudden, my computer is fixed. I dropped by the Apple store as I had not yet heard from them, expecting a bill of tens of thousands of JA dollars, a month needed to fix it, and a fight to get it covered by warranty. But Keisha, who was working at the counter, disappeared behind the back for awhile then emerged with my computer. It works perfectly. I am so confused because in Memphis, TN, at the Apple store there, they told me it would take awhile to fix and would require parts that would not be covered by the warranty. So in a way I am wary of another crash, but I am happy now! I can go back to tackling this mound of work before me.

Here are some pictures from YOU’s Annual Parenting Seminar that I wrote about last week that I did not get a chance to post yet. Have a great day!