Two flights: the deportation game
This is Chris’s story. He is one of a growing number of people being deported from the #UK, even when they have spent most of their lives here. Like so many other deportees, Chris originally moved to Britain as a child. He speaks with a London accent, and the Jamaica of his childhood is a distant memory.
▻http://lacuna.org.uk/migration/two-flights-the-deportation-game
No Tears Left to Cry: Being Deported Is a Distressing Nightmare
On the 7th of September, 2016, 38 men and four women were forcibly removed from the #UK to Jamaica on a private, chartered flight. They were all Jamaican nationals, but for most, Britain is their home. Many moved to the UK as children. Most have British children of their own. Despite that, they were deported, en masse, in secret and at great expense to the British government.
▻http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/mass-deportation-to-jamaica
#Angleterre
Slave Revolt in Jamaica, 1760-1761
►http://revolt.axismaps.com
This animated thematic map narrates the spatial history of the greatest slave insurrection in the eighteenth century British Empire. To teachers and researchers, the presentation offers a carefully curated archive of key documentary evidence. To all viewers, the map suggests an argument about the strategies of the rebels and the tactics of counterinsurgency, about the importance of the landscape to the course of the uprising, and about the difficulty of representing such events cartographically with available sources. Although this cartographic narration cannot be taken as an exhaustive database—for instance, it does not examine major themes such as belonging and affiliation among the insurgents or the larger imperial context and interconnected Atlantic world— the map offers an illuminating interpretation of the military campaign’s spatial dynamics.
In 1760, some fifteen hundred enslaved black men and women— perhaps fewer but probably many more— took advantage of Britain’s Seven Year’s War against France and Spain, to stage a massive uprising in Jamaica, which began on April 7 in the windward parish of St. Mary’s and continued in the leeward parishes until October of the next year. Over the course of eighteen months the rebels killed as many as sixty whites and destroyed many thousands of pounds worth of property. During the suppression of the revolt over five hundred black men and women were killed in battle, executed, or committed suicide. Another 500 were transported from the island for life. Colonists valued the total cost to the island at nearly a quarter of a million pounds. “Whether we consider the extent and secrecy of its plan, the multitude of the conspirators, and the difficulty of opposing its eruptions in such a variety of places at once,” wrote planter-historian Edward Long in his 1774 History of Jamaica, this revolt was “more formidable than any hitherto known in the West Indies.Mapping the great Jamaican insurrection of 1760-61 allows us to see how the island’s topography shaped the course of the revolt, how the rebellion included at least three major uprisings, and how its suppression required the sequenced collaboration of several distinct elements of British military power. From the cartographic evidence, it appears that the insurrection was in fact a well-planned affair that posed a genuine strategic threat, checked ultimately by an effective counterinsurgency. Yet if the map draws a clearer picture of the extent and contours of the insurrection, it cannot convey the ambition, hope, desperation, shock, dread, alarm, cruelty, bloodlust, and sheer mayhem of the experience. These are matters left to the historical imagination of viewers and readers.”
When Emperor Haile Selassie went to #Jamaica on this day in 1966
▻http://africasacountry.com/2016/04/when-emperor-haile-selassie-went-to-jamaica-on-this-day-in-1966
Fifty years ago today, Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie visited Jamaica. Hysterical crowds of thousands of people greeted him the airport in the capital of Kingston. The Ethiopian resistance to Italian colonialism and later occupation, legendary in the Atlantic world, drew some of the attention, but it was the Jamaica’s Rastafari population who were particularly enthusiastic. […]
#POLITICS #Books #Caribbean #Ethiopia #History #Rastafarianism
Two flights: the deportation game
This is Chris’s story. He is one of a growing number of people being deported from the UK, even when they have spent most of their lives here. Like so many other deportees, Chris originally moved to Britain as a child. He speaks with a London accent, and the Jamaica of his childhood is a distant memory.
▻http://lacuna.org.uk/justice/two-flights-the-deportation-game
#UK #Angleterre #renvoi #migrations #expulsion #Jamaïque
Global Zika update : Incidence, microcephaly and Guillain-Barré syndrome | Outbreak News Today
▻http://outbreaknewstoday.com/global-zika-update-incidence-microcephaly-and-guillain-barre-synd
The World Health Organization (WHO) released their Zika Situation Report Friday, which is chock full of interesting information, ranging from the incidence of Zika virus to microcephaly and Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) data.
Between 2015 and 2016, 33 countries have reported autochthonous transmission- Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Cape Verde, Colombia, Curaçao, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Fiji, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Maldives, Martinique, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Saint Martin, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Suriname, Tonga, United States Virgin Islands, Vanuatu and Venezuela.
Brazil has reported by far the most cases, in fact, the outbreak got so large they stopped counting cases. Best estimates from Brazil health officials say there has been [between] 497,593 and 1,482,701 cases of Zika virus since the outbreak began.
Dernier état de la situation de l’OMS, ici (actuellement, au 5/02/16)
▻http://www.who.int/emergencies/zika-virus/situation-report/en
Bisexual asylum seeker wins Home Office fight to remain in UK
Orashia Edwards says decision is ‘huge relief’ after arguing his life would be at risk if deported to Jamaica where rights groups say LGBT people still face attacks
▻http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/23/bisexual-asylum-seeker-orashia-edwards-wins-home-office-uk-jamaica?CMP=
Jamaica at the mercy of climate change
▻http://lacite.website/2015/12/16/jamaica-at-the-mercy-of-climate-change
Derrick Douglas and his fellow farmers have great difficulties working in the conditions that climate change forced on them. Like many islands, they will not be able to recover if we exceed the 1°-5° C limit. Fortunately, COP21 negotiations have been a success in this regard. Islands can’t wait.
A Cartographic Narrative–The 1760-1761 Slave Revolt in Jamaica
▻http://africasacountry.com/2015/12/slave-revolt-in-jamaica-1760-1761-a-cartographic-narrative
In my opinion, spatial analysis represents one of the most compelling new modes of storytelling provided by the digital turn. David Bodenhamer noted the value of spatial analysis in an interview for.....
Remembering #slavery in #South_Africa
▻http://africasacountry.com/remembering-slavery-in-south-africa
“I recognized Cape Town the first time I saw it,” Deborah Thomas revealed at a lecture she gave in the city in July 2014. A sociologist who works in Jamaica,.....
Parents and spanking: Spare the rod | The Economist
▻http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2014/11/parents-and-spanking?fsrc=scn/fb/te/bl/ed/sparetherod
GEORGE STEWART’S teacher in Jamaica used to wait by the school door with a switch to punish tardy pupils. His parents whipped him, too. Now he lives in the Bronx and refuses to hit his own children. “I don’t think beating works,” he says. “It instils in them a cruelty that they pass down, generation to generation.”
Ample evidence backs his view, say Richard Reeves and Emily Cuddy of the Brookings Institution, a think-tank. Nearly 30 studies from various countries show that children who are regularly spanked become more aggressive themselves, as both children and adults. They are also more likely to be depressed or take drugs, even after correcting for other factors.
#John_Holt
▻http://www.reggaerecord.com/download/en/feature.php?category=artist&id=654
John Holt is rightly revered as Jamaica’s “finest interpreter of love ballads” but he could just as easily be regarded as one of its finest rock steady singers with The Paragons, one of its foundation vocalists at Studio One, or one of its best ever roots singers through his releases for Channel One in the seventies and Henry ‘Junjo’ Lawes in the eighties…
Police In Helicopter
►http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smWVKR_LYjs
Ajoutée à ma compil consacrée à la #violence_policière : ►https://seenthis.net/messages/576637
Tales of detention center woes
Immigration | A California nonprofit helps immigrant detainees tell their stories of isolation, suffering, and abuse
#détention #détention_administrative #migration #Californie #témoignage #rétention #Angel_Island_Immigration_Station
’We don’t feel OK here’: Detainee deaths, #suicide attempts and hunger strikes plague California immigration facility
Located in the high desert 85 miles northeast of Los Angeles, the #Adelanto Detention Facility can house nearly 2,000 men and women. Officials say more than 73,000 detainees have passed through since it opened in 2011.
▻http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-adelanto-detention-20170808-story.html?platform=hootsuite
#décès #mourir_en_détention_administrative
IACHR Expresses Deep Concern for Deaths and Detention Conditions at Migrant Detention Centers in the United States
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) expresses deep concern for the deaths of ten migrant persons detained under custody of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities, which occurred during the 2017 fiscal year, which commenced on October 1, 2016 and is due to end on September 30, 2017. The IACHR urges the Government of the United States to undertake a serious and impartial investigation regarding these deaths, including the detention conditions of migrant persons under its custody.
The most recent of these deaths is the one of Rolando Meza Espinoza, a Honduran national who was detained by ICE in April of this year and passed away under its custody on June 10, as a consequence of a series of health issues that were not treated appropriately by the U.S. migration authorities, according to public sources. Based on official information, among the 10 migrant persons who have died throughout the fiscal year 2017, 2 were from Honduras, 1 from Brazil, 1 from Guatemala, 1 from Jamaica, 1 from Mexico, 1 from Nicaragua, 1 from Panama, 1 from India, and 1 from the United Kingdom. These deaths equal the number of deaths of migrant persons under custody of ICE which took place during the fiscal year 2016, which were the most numerous in the last five years. Most of the deaths occurring in the fiscal year 2017 have been as a result of medical issues and one case of suicide of a person while in solitary confinement. The Commission observes with concern that this last suicide brings the number to 6 with the other cases of suicide which have occurred during the last 5 years.
▻http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/media_center/PReleases/2017/119.asp
#USA #Etats-Unis
#vidéo: Coming Home to Jamaica: Services for Jamaican Deportees
#Jamaïque #renvoi #expulsion #déportation #témoignage #intégration
Et un guide en pdf, publié par la British High Commission :
▻https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/162326/Coming_Home_Guide_Oct_2012.pdf
Move over Bob Marley: Peter Tosh is finally getting the recognition he deserves
▻http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/move-over-bob-marley-peter-tosh-is-finally-getting-the-recognition-he
He knew what he was doing that charged evening as he strode to the microphone in his black martial arts uniform and put his life on the line in one of the most passionate and dangerous political speeches ever given by a musician. Addressing Jamaica’s two leading politicians, Prime Minister Michael Manley and Edward Seaga, the Leader of the Opposition, as they sat before him at a time when the country was being rent apart by murderous political gun battles in its poorest districts, Tosh warned: “Hungry people are angry people”.
Retribution was inevitable, and came five months later. He was taken into a police station and beaten relentlessly until his skull cracked open and the hand he attempted to shield himself with was broken. He only survived by playing dead.
▻http://midnightraverblog.com/tosh-tour-dates
MYSTIC MAN TOUR, 1979 JUNE 16 NEUE WELT, BERLIN, GERMANY
Je sens encore les nuages de ganja :-)
▻http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganja
(#Ganja may refer to: A term of Sanskrit origin for the drug cannabis)
Weekend #MUSIC Break 61
▻http://africasacountry.com/weekend-music-break-61
Your weekly collection of new tunes and videos — this week from Zambia, Ghana, Jamaica, Mali, South Africa and the Netherlands, but first: Congo. This year’s Salaam Kivu International Film Festival (#SKIFF), which took place in Goma in July, had as its theme “Agizo ya Lumumba — Justice”. The festival’s programme included film screenings and […]
#Block_Kids_on_the_New #Doctor_L #FuseODG #Joya_Mooi #Le_Cube #Little_Harry #Mumba_Yachi #Pap_G #Sampha_Sisay #Sarkodie #Spoek_Mathambo
Enjoy Yourself 065 – Mardi 25 Juin 2013
▻http://www.archives2-radio-usine.net/enjoy/enjoy-yourself.065-25.06.2013.mp3
Radio-Usine // Playlist de l’été avant la pause estivale. Passez un bel été ! Mardi 25.06.2013 – Enjoy Yourself 065 Music Doctors – Summertime Honey Boy – Jamaica The Heptones – Get in the groove Alton Ellis – i’m still in love Phyllis Dillon – Perfidia Desmond Dekker – Unity Hollie Cook feat. Horseman (...)
La carte interactive plutôt très bien faite qui retrace l’histoire des révoltes d’esclaves à la Jamaïque au XVIIIe siècle
via @freakonometrics que je remercie grandement
Jamaican Slave Revolt
►http://revolt.axismaps.com/map
These circumstances show the great extent of the conspiracy, the strict correspondence which had been carried on by the Coromantins in every quarter of the island, and their almost incredible secrecy in the forming of their plan of insurrection; for it appeared in evidence, that the first eruption in St. Mary’s, was a matter preconcerted, and known to all the chief men in the different districts; and the secret was probably confided to some hundreds, for several months before the blow was struck.—Planter and historian Edward Long, History of Jamaica (1774)
#cartographie #visualisation #cartographie_interactive #jamaique #esclavage #histoire
The Pioneers sur les révolutions au Maghreb et au Moyen-Orient (Jamaica, 2012). Frais (comme dit @thibnton)
▶ The Pioneers : « EARTH free » (Riddim LIVE and LOVE)
#zique #The_Pioneers #JA #reggae
UK’s most acclaimed riddim section Mafia & Fluxy has recently put out the Live and Love riddim with ten cuts from some of UK’s finest singers and deejays, among them The Pioneers, Sandra Cross, Tippa Irie, Little Roy, Adele Harley and Macka B.
This vintage sounding riddim was mixed and mastered at Stingray Recording Studio’s in London
▻http://unitedreggae.com/news/n1376/080912/live-and-love-riddim
The Stuart Hall Project | British Film Institute
►http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/bfi-film-releases/stuart-hall-project
Highly acclaimed at this year’s Sundance and Sheffield Documentary festivals, the new film from award-winning documentarian John Akomfrah (The Nine Muses) is a sensitive, emotionally charged portrait of cultural theorist Stuart Hall.
A founding figure of contemporary cultural studies – and one of the most inspiring voices of the post-war Left – Stuart Hall’s resounding and ongoing influence on British intellectual life commenced soon after he emigrated from Jamaica in 1951. Combining extensive archival imagery – television excerpts, home movies, family photos – with specially filmed material and a personally mixed Miles Davis soundtrack, Akomfrah’s filmmaking approach matches the agility of Hall’s intellect, its intimate play with memory, identity and scholarly impulse traversing the changing historical landscape of the second half of the 20th century.
Source: Jamaican supermarket attacked by gang of gay men in drag - PinkNews.co.uk
▻http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2013/02/21/source-jamaican-supermarket-attacked-by-gang-of-gay-men-in-drag
An attack on a supermarket in New Kingston, Jamaica, in which stones were hurled and staff were threatened with machetes was reportedly carried out by a gang of gay men in drag, according to one of the island’s newspapers.
Jamaica man savagely attacked by mob for allegedly having gay sex | Gay Star News
►http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/jamaica-man-savagely-attacked-mob-allegedly-having-gay-sex021112
Jamaica man savagely attacked by mob for allegedly having gay sex
Two young men are reported to have been caught trying to have gay sex in a Jamaican university, one escaped the other was beaten by a cheering mob and security officers who were suppose to protect him
02 November 2012 | By Dan Littauer
A young gay man was beaten by security officers of a Jamaican university with the crowd cheering in the background
Two young men were attacked and brutally beaten by a mob of onlookers, and security officers of a Jamaican university.
Gay Star News have received unconfirmed perliminary reports from Jamaica that yesterday evening (1 November) two young men were caught having sex in the toilets at the University of Technology (U-Tech) Jamaica.
According to the reports, they were spotted and captured by a mob.
Apparently the two young men tried to escape, however one was caught and brought to the security office of U-Tech where he beaten by the campus security officers, who were supposed to protect him from the mob hurling anti-gay abuse at him.
Reports suggest he may have also suffered violence prior to that by a mob of students and onlookers.
During the video some of the campus security officers were brutally beating the young man while onlookers cheered and laughed at him, some calling to ‘kill the batty-boy’.
From the video it seems the young man has been taken into police custody, while the other has managed to escape.
Dionne Jackson Miller, a Jamaican journalist commented on her Facebook page about the incident: ‘I am sad and sickened tonight.
‘Security guards at one of our universities beating up a young man because he was allegedly found engaging in homosexual acts.
‘I also continue to wonder at my friends with their heads deep in the sand insisting that we are not a homophobic society. Really? This young man is hit and kicked by a "security “guard” while excited crowds gather outside.
‘And for those who will wilfully twist my words - you are adept at that - this has nothing to do with approval of or belief in a lifestyle.
‘This is about a society that winks at barbarism and turns its head away insisting it is not happening, apparently all the reports of abuse are made up!!! And you wonder why we are seen as homophobic?’
Maurice Tomilson, a Jamaican lawyer and leading LGBT rights advocate, also condemned the incident saying the beating was ‘savage’.
‘I taught at UTech until this August and one of my former LGBT students wrote me in a panic. He is scared to return to the campus because of the strong anti-gay sentiments.
‘The Jamaican religious right keeps claiming all attacks are gay on gay violence. They even have the police saying this foolishness.
‘While the Jamaican government refuses to show leadership on the issue of human rights of LGBT people.’
Gay Star News is investigating the incident and will publish more details as soon as they become available.
Watch the video here:
Gay Star News « MasterAdrian’s Weblog
►http://masteradrian.com/2012/10/26/gay-star-news
Gay Star News
October 26, 2012
Jamaica TV stations sued for rejecting pro-gay ads
Jamacian gay activist is to sue three Jamaican TV stations after they rejected paid pro gay awareness TV ads, alleging they breached Jamaica’s constitutional charter on fundamental rights and freedoms
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Intersex Awareness Day calls for equality and end to bigotry
Campaigners around the world insist intersex is not a ‘disorder’ and urge for end to medical ‘normalization’
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Six lesbians brutally beaten at petrol station
As man terrifies group of women, leaving two in hospital, anti-gay attacks are on the rise in South Africa
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French bird man dances against gay marriage
Protesters hatch a plan to stop France’s gay marriage and adoption bill by performing a bizarre bird dance
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Google employees speak out for gay marriage
Google launched a video in support of marriage equality featuring its employees
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The truth about sexuality in ancient Greece and Rome
GSN takes a look into homosexuality in the ancient Greco-Roman world for LGBT History Month
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Australian police reopen investigation of gay man’s death
Australian police have reopened an investigation into an American man’s death in Sydney 24 years ago which was originally dismissed as a suicide and will seek to find out whether it was linked to other homophobic attacks around the same time
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Study shows gay twins have better mental health
A group of UCLA researchers were surprised to find that heterosexual twins suffered more mental distress than their gay siblings when they set out to find why straight men have trouble asking for help
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Obama endorses marriage push in three states
US President Barack Obama has backed moves to legalize same-sex marriage in three states deciding ballot initiatives on the issue at elections in November
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Anti-gay marriage stance may be helping Chick-fil-A’s bottom line
Fast food chain’s customers have grown by 2.2 percent
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See video of Matt Bomer’s deleted stripper scene from Magic Mike
Much of the out star’s solo dancing didn’t make final cut of summer hit
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Days of Our Lives gay couple will finally have a sex scene on daytime soap
See preview of Will and Sonny’s upcoming love scene
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Gay icon Elizabeth Taylor is the top-earning dead celebrity
Estate for late actress and AIDS activist earns $210 million
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A rocky road ahead for lesbian couple on Grey’s Anatomy
Sara Ramirez’s Callie deals with wife Arizona becoming an amputee
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Is there hope for gay Jamaica?
GSN speaks to three leading Jamaican gay activists about their new prime minister, their legal challenge to the country’s homophobia, gay murders and more
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Meet the gay couple from that Barclays TV ad
We find out how a gay man was ‘street cast’ for he and his boyfriend to feature in one of the UK’s few mainstream TV commercials with an openly same-sex couple
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Jessica Simpson ‘in shock’ but will stand by her gay dad
US singer left wondering how much of her family’s life was a lie after devout Christian dad Joe Simpson comes out as gay
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Verdict in gay porn barman attack case
Man admits to bottling drink server over the head after he was shown gay pornography in Scotland hotel
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Liberia Christians say God wants gay sex to stay illegal
Liberian Church and Inter-Religious Council has joined forces to stop the senate from repealing anti-gay laws
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Olympian Mo Farah donates photo to HIV charity auction
Olympic gold medallist joins other athletes in donating photographs for charity
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Football lovers fear racism row will stop action on gay hate
Gay campaign group worries media storm over Kick It Out drive will mean homophobia and transphobia neglected in British game
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Italy takes first step to make gay hate illegal
Italy’s parliament has approved the first draft of a law against gay and trans discrimination
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GSN hosts $1trillion market cap at first business breakfast
Gay Star News first business breakfast has seen companies worth a total of $1trillion coming together to learn the future of the LGBT market.
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Scissor Sisters announce indefinite break from music
New York band, which features three gay members, say they are now working on solo projects
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More to read:
Study sheds light on police ‘trans’ abuse in New York area
Jamaica TV stations sued for rejecting pro-gay ads « MasterAdrian’s Weblog
►http://masteradrian.com/2012/10/26/jamaica-tv-stations-sued-for-rejecting-pro-gay-ads
Jamaica TV stations sued for rejecting pro-gay ads
Jamacian gay activist is to sue three Jamaican TV stations after they rejected paid pro gay awareness TV ads, alleging they breached Jamaica’s constitutional charter on fundamental rights and freedoms
read more
Jamaica to teach kids to be straight, not gay | Gay Star News
►http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/jamaica-teach-kids-be-straight-not-gay021012
Jamaica to teach kids to be straight, not gay
Jamaica’s minister of education says schools should promote heterosexual relationships, but not gay
02 October 2012 | By Dan Littauer
Ronald Thwaites, Jamaica’s education minister, says only heterosexual relationships should be promoted in schools, not gay ones
Jamaica minister of education Ronald Thwaites said that the ’homosexual lifestyle’ would not be promoted in the education system.
The decision follows an announcement by the minister last month to withdraw and to revise the Health and Family Life Education (HFLE) curriculum for public schools as the teaching manual mentioned homosexuality.
Thwaites emphasised the importance of the HFLE curriculum but said only heterosexual relationships would be promoted in the education system, while expressing tolerance for those who chose alternative lifestyles.
‘I wish to make it quite clear that in the rewrite of that particular aspect of it, however it came to be, we are not going to be promoting homosexuality in this country. We’re just not going to do it.
‘We are going to promote healthy heterosexual relationships, but with a tolerance and compassion for those who adopt a different lifestyle. There is a difference between grooming and conditioning, and being tolerant; and that distinction is quite possible for us to craft’, quoted in the daily Jamaica Observer.
Last month Thwaites ordered the withdrawal and a revision of the sections of the HLFE manual to be used in grades seven to nine, following a media storm about it touching upon the subject of homosexuality.
Thwaites promised to have the ‘offending sections’ rewritten and back in schools in two months.
Some of the questions in the manual asked if teenagers had anal sex; whether they ever thought they were gay; knew their HIV status and if they had multiple partners.
The daily Jamaica Observer reported that some education experts said the questions pertinent as some adolescents were having sex from an early age and were indulging in anal sex.
They also said the manual, funded in part by international agencies, had undergone extensive review among teachers and guidance counsellors.
Thwaits however insisted that some of the questions should not be asked and only heterosexual lifestyles should be promoted.
‘It was totally unacceptable that that material should even have been issued.
‘The important thing is that we balance an appropriate exposure of sexuality and of human relationships to young people, but in an instance where you are not promoting and advancing a particular lifestyle which many consider to be inappropriate.’
The minister also thanked a number of churches and concerned groups which placed a full-page advertisement in the Jamaica Observer on Monday (1 Otcober) expressing grave concern about the curriculum and supporting his decision to have the offending parts withdrawn and rewritten.
Speaking with Gay Star News, Maurice Tomilson, Jamaican lawyer and leading LGBT rights advocate commented: ‘Jamaica’s minister of education, Roman Catholic Deacon Ronald Thwaites, has finally shown his true colours. He flatly rejects established scientific evidence that homosexuality is naturally occurring in 450 species in nature (including humans) and also wants Jamaican students to remain ignorant of that fact.
‘His claim to be in support of tolerance is hollow, when he clearly states that the only “healthy” relationship is a heterosexual one.
‘Thanks to his now stated policy of exclusion, LGBT students will continue to be denied accurate information on how to negotiate issues of sexuality.
‘These students will also continue enduring horrific acts of bullying and abuse by their homophobic classmates who will remain ignorant about homosexuality.
‘Thanks to this Minister, yet another generation of Jamaicans will never know what our national motto “Out of Many, One People” truly means. They will therefore be ill-equipped to function in modern pluralistic societies.’
Anti-gay hate forces closure of Jamaica gay homeless center | Gay Star News
►http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/anti-gay-hate-forces-closure-jamaica-gay-homeless-center011012
Anti-gay hate forces closure of Jamaica gay homeless center
Jamaica’s only drop-in center for homeless LGBT youth was closed due to anti-gay sentiments by local authorities and media
01 October 2012 | By Dan Littauer
Many LGBT youth become homeless and live in the streets of Kingston, Jamaica whose only source of help, in the form of a drop in center, has now been shut
The Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-sexuals & Gays (J-FLAG) – a charity organisation, was forced to close down the Caribbean island state’s only drop-in centre for homeless gays which it managed with the Jamaica Aids Support (JAS) organization.
The announcement was made by a J-FLAG representative at a recent meeting in Jamaica’s capital, Kingston.
Maurice Tomilson, Jamaican lawyer and leading LGBT rights advocate told GSN that homelessness of LGBT people is a major problem in Jamacia. A recent survey reported by GSN found high levels of homophobia in Jamaica; many young people are ejected by their families, communities and schools due to their sexuality.
The meeting on Thursday (27 September) was called by city officials who were said to ‘be concerned about the action of homosexuals behaving badly and selling sexual services on the streets of Kingston’.
It included representatives from J-FLAG and JAS and a group of approximately 20 homeless gay men, many of whom appeared to be in their teens and early 20s.
The gay men stated their greatest needs were for skills training, food, clothing and shelter.
One of the group was quoted by the Jamaican daily The Gleaner as saying: ‘the schooling is not going to be enough. We need meals and a drop-in centre. Some of them don’t have clothes. Where are they gonna sleep and get food?’
Dane Lewis, a J-FLAG representative, was quoted as saying: ‘We have tried to conduct a drop-in centre on a number of occasions, but we don’t have the skills set and resources to deal with it. What we have decided is that we have to stop it … because we don’t have the staff capacity to manage it.’
‘We are on our knees,’ said one of the street gays begging J-FLAG to reconsider.
City officials, however, had little sympathy for the homeless gay youth.
Kari Douglas, a city councillor urged the young men ‘to take responsibility for themselves’.
While Angela Brown-Burke, mayor of Kingston blamed the youth for bringing misery on themselves as they ‘were lacking a sense of responsibility.’
‘Be careful because we don’t want to think that there is a sense of obligation’ she said.
Julian Robinson, the member of parliament for the South East St Andrew constituency that includes Kingston and its environs agreed with the mayor and said that ‘raucous behaviour of the homosexuals, which includes fighting and flamboyance, in the neighbourhood had to be addressed.’
‘We have to tackle frontally the behavioural issue. Many people in Jamaica face similar challenges and don’t behave in the same disruptive manner.
‘It is a police problem, it is a residential problem and it is a business problem.’
Commander Christopher Murdock, head of the Kingston Police, also said the youth behaved ‘in a terrible manner
‘Each of these young men needs to take a hard look at themselves and see if they can behave in a civil manner’.
The local Jamaican media showed even less sympathy and reported the closure under a sensaltionalist title: ’Rowdy Gays Strike - J-FLAG Abandons Raucous Homosexuals Misbehaving In New Kingston’.
Tomilson told GSN: ‘J-FLAG and JAS have been struggling for years to develop an appropriate protocol to deal with the steady stream of homeless LGBT youth living on the streets of the nation’s capital. Many them come from very challenging areas and have poor conflict resolution skills.
‘JFLAG and JAS are simply not equipped to meet the complex social, emotional and physical needs of these individuals and have therefore sought assistance from the government.
‘Both groups also tried to launch a media campaign encouraging Jamaicans to love their LGBT family members and so stop evicting them. In this regard, a tolerance themed advertisement was developed, however, the television stations flatly refused to even accept payment to air the advertisement because they claimed it would encourage homosexuality.
‘Expecting these homeless youth to rehabilitate themselves is ridiculous, and I suspect JFLAG and JAS know that.
’The result is that these youth will now be harder to reach with essential HIV prevention, treatment, care and support interventions.
‘Since some of these homeless youth engage in sex work as a means of survival, this represents a public health crisis.
‘Jamaican homophobia contributed to the high number of homeless LGBT people.
‘Yet, like Pontius Pilate, the Prime Minister, Portia Simpson-Miller and her government refuse to show leadership to end this scourge by expeditiously seeking a repeal of the archaic anti-sodomy law that sanctions violence, police extortions and other abuses against LGBT.
‘Simply put, while the Jamaican government dithers on the issue of human rights for LGBT, they are presiding over a public health tragedy. Truly, we sow to the wind and we reap the whirlwind.’
Watch the tolerance advertisement rejected by Jamaican media on the grounds they ’encourage homosexuality’: