I wonder if some business executives know something that the Jamaican people don’t. Sandals is planning to reopen next month and Air Canada and British Airways are planning to resume flights to the island next month. However, borders are closed at least until May 31. If a business is planning ahead like that, they must have had some indication they will be able to operate. How will they be able to reassure their customers they will be allowed entry to the country, and will they have to quarantine for two weeks, like regular Jamaicans? And will regular Jamaicans be allowed to re-enter without applying for a visa? So many questions and no answers. What is known, however, is that the tourism industry provides more than 10 per cent of the country’s GDP, so that portion of the economy needs to be restarted as soon as possible.

Condolences to the family and friends of Jamar Thelwell, who was a lecturer at Utech. He passed away this week. I worked with Jamar at Utech, and he was always so kind and extra-helpful to students and his colleagues. He will be deeply missed.

My Boy Lollipop singer Millie Small has died. Clarendon-born, she had the highest selling ska single of all time. She was 72 and died of a stroke. She lived in London.

https://twitter.com/nhannahjones/status/1257724889596903425?s=21

This is amazing. Congratulations to New York Times magazine writer Nikole Hannah-Jones, who won a Pulitzer Prize for her 1619 essay. It is a phenomenal look at slavery in the US, as is her very personal podcast. Equally amazing is the posthumous award to Ida B. Wells, an abolitionist, feminist and journalist who documented lynching.

This is a tragic story of a returning resident who was murdered in Jamaica two years ago. It’s well-written and sheds a lot of light on different aspects of the breakdown of law and order here.

Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley was interviewed by CNN’s Christiane Amampour on Wednesday. Mottley is one of a handful of female leaders who are being praised for their leadership during the COVID-19 crisis I guess people are surprised that women can be good leaders? Although let me take the less cynical perspective and look at it from the journalistic perspective that things out of the ordinary are always newsworthy- there are only 15 female heads of state in the world. And indeed, female leaders are doing a comparably excellent job managing this unprecedented crisis…

Nevertheless, Mottley is being praised for steering Barbados out of the crisis. Lockdowns and curfews are in the process of being lifted, and the number of cases and deaths from the virus are relatively low.

It should also be noted that the first story regarding female leadership during the crisis emerged from a journalist in France, writing for Amina Magazine. The story was published for several days with little reaction, then a writer from Forbes allegedly plagiarized the story, only for it to go viral. Charlotte Seck should be credited for her research and work.

https://twitter.com/SeckCharlotte/status/1254163171788632065?s=20

From a time when we could go out and meet up with friends for coffee…the Raggamuffin Cafe in Kingston.

Here I was thinking I’m growing a variety of vegetables. Turns out they are a bunch of weeds…

Last night it was revealed at a press conference that one deported citizen has tested positive for the virus. My piece for Reuters.