Marjorie Vernon

For over twenty years, Marjorie Vernon has been involved in cultural administration.

"I love it, I enjoy what I do, even when the going gets rough," she still proclaims with conviction.

As the regional manager for the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission's Trelawny, St James, Hanover and Westmoreland operations, she is fully aware of the contemporary challenges facing her organisation in the form of the competition for audiences posed by the myriad of other available entertainment options.

The parishes are all vibrant participants in the JCDC's annual activities with St James usually boasting the most entrants.

Westmoreland and Trelawny can be counted on as the indigenous folk parishes where Gerreh and kumina dominate. Tambu, is one of the least known traditional forms, but its signature cloth -around -the -girl -waist and provocative shimmy are alive and well in Trelawny where it is practiced by children and adults.

Right now Vernon and her team are preparing for a four-day workshop in Duncans, Trelawny. Workshops and training are an important part of the JCDC's mandate and these are used to sharpen skills and help develop talent. Recalling the initial thrill she got when as deputy Head girl of Herbert Morrison Comprehensive in Montego Bay, she won a medal on singing with a trio in the music festival, She wants to facilitate a similar experience for others. So she encourages schools and community groups to participate in the annual events. "I was among the first set of graduates of the newly- formed Herbert Morrison High school and it gave us pride to have won something for our school, " she said.

Among the JCDC's annual events are the annual Birthday Tribute for the Rt Excellent Bustamante, in his native parish of Hanover. This along with Heritage week and Emancipation Week activities are on the regional manager's organisational schedule. With a structure which includes a manager for each parish she has capable support in the region to undertake these special activities.

In 1986 while teaching at Mannings High school, the calm and gentle-voiced Marjorie Vernon was encouraged to participate in the Annual Festival Queen Competition. She was crowned parish queen for Westmoreland. That success led to her becoming chairman of the parish Festival Queen Competition in 1991. Following the completion of her Masters degree, she joined the JCDC head office in charge of Public Relations and Marketing. Two years later, she heeded the call of the west and returned to Sav-la-Mar to support the development of culture in western parishes and pay closer attention to her two young daughters.

Traversing the parishes, she and her team scout for new talent to showcase at the various contests and exhibitions.
Interest in the arts covers performing, plastic and culinary forms. Painters, writers, sculptors and artisans in general can participate in the appropriate competitions and earn visibility and recognition they could not achieve on their own.

Vernon anticipates the current global financial crises will create greater pressure on the funding support required to undertake activities in the parishes. However she hopes those good and faithful corporate sponsors will continue their commitment, as her work requires partnership with all sectors, especially the business community, creative community and the public.

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Corporal Marvin Fishley is $500,000 wealthier today, and the genre of gospel music is richer as he made history at the Mass Camp Saturday night when he was announced the first winner of the Tastee Talent Trail.

Contestants performing gospel songs dominated what was the first grand final of the new phase of what used to be called the Tastee Talent Contest, and Fishley was the most competitive. With consummate ease, well-modulated tone and voice control, Fishley, a member of the Island Special Constabulary Force, gave notice that another star is on the rise, and the genre of gospel music is the firmament in which he will shine.

The Tastee Talent Trail grand final was one of the most keenly contested events, so much so that some members of the massive audience were at times in an intolerable mood. On many occasions, jeers and heckles were hurled at the judges' open remarks and comments.

From a field of nine other grand finalists, Fishley faced a stiff challenge in his bid for the first prize - $500,000 cash and a recording contract worth $500,000 plus a high-end cellphone from Cable & Wireless and other prizes from Pepsi and Tastee. His toughest opponents were third place winner Cydia McPherson; 16-year-old Lennox Forbes, who surprisingly never made it in the top four places; Melvin Gayle, who, having placed second, is $250,000 million richer for his performance of Richie Stephens' Take Me Away and Luther Vandross' I'd Rather, and saxophonist Garfield Lawrence, who came fourth.

"I can say to Jamaica, dem a go see greater, greater things from Marvin Fishley," the triumphant graduate of the Jonathan Grant High School in Spanish Town told the Observer in a post-show interview. The elated Fishley whose extraordinary presentations of Little Is Much and Four Days Late in the first and second segments respectively, also expressed gratitude for the grooming he had received during the course of the talent trail.

McPherson was participating in her third talent search competition, having won the Caribbean Championship of the Performing Arts, and the 2001 Tastee Talent Contest semifinal.

"Well, Gods knows everything, and I said to God be the glory. Because it was 10 of us and the competition was stiff," admitted the third place winner who sang To Go Be The Glory and Midnight Cry.

With a strong delivery, McPherson pushed into fourth place saxophonist Garfield Lawrence, whose interesting interpretations of Silhouette and Tarrus Riley's She's Royal, found favour with the audience.

"Hopefully, this will bring me some more exposure, so that other people can hear me, so that I can get more work in the music industry," was how the instrumentalist, who plays at Sandals Negril on Tuesdays, accepted the results. As usual in talent hunts like this, there were a few surprise omissions.

"I am a little bit disappointed, but I know that there will still be an opportunity for me to show my talent to the world," said Mannings High School student Lennox Forbes.Forbes, the 2004 Children's Gospel Festival Song contest winner, did not place among the top four, despite giving an excellent performance.
Another strong contender for whom the first staging of the Tastee Talent Trail was just too competitive was dub poet Kibwe Lawrence, who came in for much attention with his original entries of Pencil Foot Pants and the more popular Deportee. Such is the nature of the game, and he, along with other grand finalists, like Leopold Walker, who was a tad below the standard of his performance of Stevie Wonder's hit Sir Duke in the October semifinal, will just have to, as they say, "Wheel an come again."

The guest artiste slot featuring some of the more prominent winners of the previous dispensation of the contest was highly entertaining. Yellowman was in his element, but the audience just couldn't get enough of Beenie Man, while Nadine Sutherland held her own and Rum Head gave an amusing account of his signature act. Apart from the past winners, TOK was in good nick, Miss Ting's cameo appearance was well received, but perhaps for the first time in his long career there was no satisfaction in veteran Karl Dawkins' performance. And the audience, unlike his previous Tastee's appearances over the years, including the one in October, was indifferent to him.

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O'Brien Dennis is 25-years old. He has never been to prison, but he has been raped three times.
"You weren't raped. You were buggered. A man can't get raped. You don't have a vagina," the policeman told him.

It's a woman's worst nightmare. Some people are unsympathetic to female rape victims, sometimes even blaming them. At least women have resources to help cope with rape.

But where does a boy or man go when he is raped? Who does he turn to? It seems men get no sympathy at all when they are raped. Added to that is disbelief and ridicule.

"Notten nuh go so," said a male to whom I tried to give an account of my interview with O'Brien Dennis. "Rape which part? A b_ _ _ _ boy dat. Him did want it. Nuh man nah go mek another man hold him down." He adamantly refused to see it any other way.

This is typical of society's response to the rape of men. But O'Brien Dennis is used to it. Society's attitude, he said, creates a vicious cycle, which permits the rape of men and boys to happen much more often than people know. No one believes it. No one wants to address it. And while society turns away from it, it destroys lives.

That is why O'Brien has written about his ordeal. His book is called The Cries of Men - Voices of Jamaican Men Who Have Been Raped & Sexually Abused. It was published in the United States by iUniverse, Inc.

"I've always been private. I decided to write my story because I wanted a book out there that could relate to black men especially Caribbean men."

O'Brien wants Jamaicans to know that the anti-gay rhetoric, which is strong here, is not what it appears to be and it is doing harm. "In this society there is so much scrutiny that a man is put under when he comes forward with a rape complaint. We need to ensure that the kids are protected first. Most kids assume it's their fault and will grow up with that mindset."

O'Brien was born in Westmoreland. He lived in August Town for a short while, where at age five a teenaged acquaintance sexually abused him. His grandmother took him back to Westmoreland. But when he was 14, a neighbour, whom he had trusted, also sexually abused him.

According to him, he had been a poor mathematics student and his 21-year-old neighbour offered to help him with schoolwork. O'Brien grew attached to the man, seeing him as a substitute for the love and attention he lacked at home. But the man asked him for sex and eventually forced himself on young O'Brien.

He said he felt obligated to the man so he gave in to the sexual abuse. It continued for a while even though the man had a girlfriend. "I was an alcoholic from age 16 to 19," O'Brien says of his coping strategy. "I had asked the guy if he was going to leave his girlfriend for me. He said no. He rejected me. I really wanted to run away."

His grandmother told him that education was the only way to escape poverty. So despite the abuse he applied himself at school. "Going to Mannings High School were my two best years. I had girlfriends and I did well in school.

But I did exams drunk," O'Brien said. He is angry though that the man he trusted took advantage of him. He found out later that the man was still abusing boys, although he still had a girlfriend.
But that was not the end of the victimisation. "I went to University (in Jamaica) and was living on Hall.

I met a guy there but he and another man held me down and raped me. If I had something to hang myself with I would have." He somehow managed to graduate with a degree in African Studies and International Relations.

Sexual abuse has left him feeling guilty and angry. "I hated gay men when I was growing up. Out of guilt and anger I lashed out against gay men so I could punish somebody - trying to get over what happened to me." Out of guilt he got baptised at age 9. "I felt that God could save me. I would cry at altar calls.

The church was comforting but the doctrine was messed up. If you come out and confessed, the church denounced you and kicked you out. If there is a pill, I could take to make me not gay I would take it."

According to O'Brien, sexual abuse of men has a ripple effect - a side effect of which is promiscuity. Male victims need to convince themselves they are not gay. Out of anger and his need to control his life he became promiscuous. "I had a lot of sex with men and women. I felt guilty about it because I knew I was just using them," he said.

"The whole rude boy culture is a fraud. Rude boys dress well and have more girls, but the whole thing is just a façade." O'Brien says. He loves the song "Bum bye bye in a b_ _ _ _ boy head" by Buju Banton.

According to him, lashing out against homosexuals is "more a reflection of who you are and who you can't be. Every gay man I know like this song. Gay bashers are more in denial than anything. Most of them are just doing it to cover up their own feelings."

Sexual abuse of men is rampant in free society. This is not a prison phenomenon, he argues while reflecting on his university days.

"A lot of men on campus get raped also. It was a power play. If a man had lots of girls then this could cause jealousy. There are tons of men who get raped during the campus 'drink ups'. Ninety percent of the rapes are committed by men who say they are heterosexuals," he says while arguing that raping of men isn't always a gay thing.

O'Brien feels that society's attitudes not the laws need to be changed. "It makes no sense to change the buggery laws. If you have no avenues to deal with sexual abuse of men, then people will continue to abuse boys. When you sexually abuse a child you mess him up."

When asked about his own sexual orientation he says, "I'm never into labels. I don't think of myself as gay or bisexual or whatever. I'm just who I am. I've been with girls as well as men. I tell the girls that I also have sex with men. But I'm not with a man or woman for sex. It's more emotional."

"Homosexuality will never stop," O'Brien says. What percentage of the population does he think are homosexuals? "A lot," he responds emphatically. "A lot more than people think."

He had hidden that side of him well. At a high school reunion in New York, no one believed he was gay. The girls now started to question their husbands. A former girlfriend's husband is gay but he (O'Brien) cannot tell her for fear of being the bearer of bad news. But he thinks she suspects something.

"Women have instincts, which are stronger than men's and 9 out of 10 times her instincts are right," O'Brien says. "Always make sure that you are protected. It's the woman's responsibility to ensure that she is protected. Many times the man knows what he is doing, so he starts to use condoms with his girlfriend.

But the girlfriend starts to question this so the man backs off. There is a lot of responsibility that the woman has to protect herself."

According to him, there are many homosexual or bisexual men who have invested their lives in a home and family. But these men cannot go to their women and confess because the women will strip them of everything, including affection and understanding. His own girlfriend never spoke to him for a year because she felt it was her fault.

In 2002 someone tried to blackmail O'Brien -forcing him to tell his family. His sister was angry with his grandmother for knowing what happened to him but not doing anything.

But the hard part was telling his mother. He never had the best relationship with her. She was a higgler who also worked with the government. She loved her job and travelled often.

According to O'Brien, his mother would give him and his sister toys and trips but not love and attention. It was not easy to communicate with her. When he told her what had happened she said he must have enjoyed it for it to happen the second time without him saying anything. This hurt him.

"My mother was just like a log. I would rather her giving me a hug than all the toys. She was never around during the important times like Common Entrance and CXC. I passed six subjects but all she wanted to know is why I never got higher grades.

I got my first degree and she does not even know in what. Yet she goes around saying she put me through school. I foot my own school bills."

These days his mother has accepted him as homosexual and despite his conflicts with her, he recognises some of her in himself. He describes her as somewhat boisterous. He can be as well. His mother likes to dress up, shop and party. So does he.

And his father? He came into his life when O'Brien was about 21. His father has eleven other children that O'Brien is aware of. When O'Brien told him about his life of sexual abuse, his father told him he was sorry for his absence over the years. They have made peace and now have a cordial relationship.

But O'Brien has a special plea for parents. "When a child comes to you and says, so and so touched him, you need to take him seriously."

"I've dealt with all my major issues now." Scared for most of his life and full of guilt, he went into therapy. O'Brien had been keeping journals since he was 16. It was these journals that supplied the information for his book.

"Crying has always been my greatest strength. Crying doesn't make me a weakling. If men don't let the anger out it's going to come out in other ways," O'Brien says. "It's hard to be a man because society places so much burden and expectations on you.

Unless a woman appreciates the simplicity within a man, even his weaknesses, that's the only way we can bridge the gender gap."

He has been living in the United States for the past four years. He has invested US$20,000 to promote his first book "The Cries of Men," which was written from a child's perspective.

He had given up a secure job and an apartment to write it. O'Brien says he lost friends when his book was published, but he has no regrets. Writing has been a cathartic experience for him.

Through writing he finally found peace and the self-acceptance he sought all his life. "Living someone else's dreams will put you in denial and depress you for years without end. I am happier now than I have ever been."

He is forming a "not for profit" organisation for men who have been abused. He expects this to get off the ground by November or December this year pending legal documentation.

He plans to give 10 per cent of his earnings from his books to his organisation.
O'Brien is currently not involved with anyone, and he is OK with that. But he plans to have children in another two years.

In the meantime he is busy working on a follow-up book called "Responses to the Cries." He is also trying to get an accurate picture about the rate of male abuse in Jamaica. His second book will be published next year.

O'Brien has absolute faith in the power of education to change lives. He intends to further his by working for a master's degree in Public Health Administration.

His inspiration, he says, was Oprah Winfrey whose history is also one of sexual abuse. Like Oprah he is also not afraid to speak out. "The whole homophobia thing prevents men from talking about rape," O'Brien concludes. But that will never stop him.

"I want men and women who have been raped to know that it is not their fault." He wants sexually abused men to know that they can overcome just like he had. "I am a victim and I have survived."

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Books are her friends - It doesn't take long, once you start talking with Novlette Grant, to realise that she's cautious about choosing friends. That's hardly surprising, given her upbringing. Selecting the wrong friends while she was still under parental guidance, would earn her mom's ire, Grant tells all woman.

"The look, the evil eye or one wave from that dismissive hand," was enough Grant says, admitting that she learnt very early that her mother was the disciplinarian in the family.

The upshot was that Grant, now an assistant commissioner of police, found comfort in books. "Books were my friends," says Grant. "All types of books. In fact, anything that could be read was my friend. I walked with books, I walked and read my books."
That, it appears, was a major transformation for the girl who "did not want to go to infant school".

By the time she was 10 years old, she had already read Robinson Crusoe, The White Witch of Rosehall, Man Friday, and the notoriously intricate Canterbury Tales. She could also recite scores of poems by the "lake poets" and had a special love for those by Robert Louis Stephenson and Sir Walter Raleigh.

When she eventually went to school, Grant was almost seven years old. She was placed in the grade one class at Cokesview Primary, where her aunt was class teacher.

"I believe she was harder on me than she was on the other children," Grant reflects. But it was that aunt's 'tin case' that Grant frequently raided for books which she read while hiding under the large dining room table, despite warnings of punishment.

That early display of a fixity of purpose has strengthened over the years and has helped to position Grant among the high-ranking police officers who will likely be considered to succeed Commissioner Francis Forbes when he retires.

In recognition of that eventuality, Grant was sent by the constabulary on an executive management course for senior law enforcement officers in the United Kingdom a few years ago - a course that Forbes himself completed before becoming the police chief.

The training she received there has, no doubt, helped her with her job of reforming and modernising the police force's corporate strategy, a task given to her by Commissioner Forbes.

The programme, launched six years ago, will move into its second phase next year, and Grant speaks proudly of the achievements so far:

• the upgrading of the Police Academy to a tertiary institution;
• the training of crime pattern and crime scene analysts;
• more than 4,500 cops trained in crime scene preservation;
• 7,000 trained in the concept and the philosophy of the constabulary "to serve and protect";
• more than 140 specialists in homicide investigation;
• 43 trained in safe encounter techniques;
• 7,000 coached in customer service, and;
• training in values and attitudes

Under the programme, too, there have been advances in the computerisation of the Special Branch database and scenes of crime equipment; guard rooms have been redesigned into reception areas in four divisions; and the constabulary is now looking forward to establishing an emergency medical service, as well as a modern human resource department.

The mandate is huge, but Grant is accustomed to the hard work and detail that go into making projects successful. For that discipline was learnt in her early years.

"We were taught to treat the environment as we treated our home, school and church," she explains. "We kept our blackboard clean, there was always a memory gem to motivate you. We kept the gardens, and there were no gardeners there to teach us, but we knew when we were finished. it was a sense of pride and achievement."

No one, she adds, had to tell them that the classrooms had to be swept. Children knew what had to be done and they did it willingly.

Respect for other people, too, was drilled into her, she explains, while telling how she and some classmates once received a caning because they mocked an old man one morning on their way to school.

"A male teacher saw us, but we did not see him. So, he went to school and decided to ask us questions from the back of the civics book. We had not reached there yet, and we could not answer the questions," she recalls. That gave the teacher an excuse to take out the strap they all named "Jack the giant killer".

"That was the official reason for the caning, but we knew that it was because we called the old man "duppy ding ding"," she says.

Today, Grant isn't bitter about the beating. However, her departure from primary school wasn't made very pleasant by the fact that her entire class did not get into high school after sitting the Common Entrance Examination.

The reason was that none of them finished the test because they were not taught the speed element of the exam. Today, she is still upset with the system which deemed the children failures.

Disappointed at the development, Grant turned to Petersfield Secondary School to continue her education. She successfully sat the Grade Nine Achievement Test and went on to Mannings High School where her attention was drawn to the constabulary.

Grant says that it started when she saw a woman cop at a promotional campaign, dressed in full regalia. It made her stop and look hard.

After graduation, she sent an application to the police force. But Grant had also harboured a desire to teach, so she mailed another application to Church Teachers' College.

Destiny determined that the constabulary responded first and she began training in 1981 at Port Royal in Kingston, where the police academy was once located before it was removed to Twickenham Park, St Catherine.She recalls how it was subtly implied during her training that recruits should obey commands and "ask questions later".

However, she found a way to ask the questions, still register her dissatisfaction, but carry out the commands.She laughs as she remembers one of the rules at training school - "No female should walk alone on the compound."
Why?

The trainers at the time were more concerned that the "virtues of the young women recruits should be protected".

In her 23 years of service to the constabulary, Grant, who has one child, has worked in several police divisions across the island. She also furthered her education at the University of the West Indies, but doesn't have very many complimentary things to say about the institution.

"The University of the West Indies is a dangerous place for young, decent males and females from good homes in this country," she says. "Sexual predators and rapists roam the campus."

She says she was also turned off by the "displays of juvenile behaviour from people who were getting higher education, and who believed they had a right to be at the university".
That frightened her "because they were professing to be the future leaders of this country".

Grant also abhorred what she described as corruption between the hall chairmen and other officials, which determined that "if you weren't a player, you could not live on hall, although you were desperate and in need of housing".

This "corruption", according to Grant, resulted in persons from the Corporate Area living on halls, while students from rural Jamaica, were foraging for places to live.
She recalls students demonstrating that there was no water on campus "but having water wars, when people who were paying for water had to undergo water-lock offs".

"The university's administration knew about much of what was going on, but turned a blind eye," Grant charges, adding that dishonesty was allowed to grow on the campus.
Her biggest disappointment, she says, was that she believed that she would have been "taught something". "So now, I must police a society where so many of these persons are in charge," she says.

Like the rest of the society, Grant is concerned about the image of the police force and advises her colleagues to be conscious of the power they hold and the responsibility that comes with that power.

"The police must be a cut above the rest," she says. "When you have the power to use deadly and non-deadly force, and take away freedoms, you must be able to stand up to scrutiny."

She is also concerned also about the lack of trust the public has in the police, but believes the issue is about a larger degree of trust in the society.

"There is mistrust in our relationships, we do not trust big businesses, parents don't trust their children and the police fall in that too," she argues.

While she believes the police accepts the need to be trusted, she urges the society to evaluate its need to trust.

"Bringing something to the attention of the police is not the end of the journey, and the public must know that the police enforce law, they don't dispense justice," says Grant.

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The bright lights of capital cities have long been the reason many young people have fled the parish of their birth. Not so for Jennifer Allen, managing director of Hotel Commingle located at 7 Hudson Street, Savanna-la-Mar.

Standing in the lobby of her well-appointed, bustling, eclectic style, 16-room boutique hotel, it's hard to imagine that this stylish, articulate woman, (who turns 50 on her next birthday) had an intimate relationship with poverty. "I was poor," she tells Thursday Life "I lived in a one-bedroom house with my mother. The only reason why it wasn't so bad was because I was not from a large family." Her road from poverty to one of successful businesswoman is one with a not too unfamiliar ring. "I had an ambitious mother who encouraged me. (I'll give you an example, she saved for two years straight to send me on a school trip to Mexico) and, thankfully, encouraged me to get a good education. I attended Mannings High School where I did well enough to leave with 7 GCE 'O' levels. My next stop was nursing, I just loved the uniform, and it didn't hurt that I had gained passes in Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics and Biology."

Allen returned to Savanna-la Mar after graduation in 1976 from the University Hospital of the West Indies but left again, this time for New York, where she spent three years. "I only spent one year in nursing. New York was just not for me."

Like so many other nurses, Allen returned home and used her training in other ways. "I had always enjoyed sewing and used to create outfits for some of the girls at school. This skill was not pursued nor encouraged since I was doing sciences," she adds.

On her return however, she opened a bridal store at Beckford Street, and started with her husband Roger on her own path of wealth creation.

"I would notice that women were now a major part of sales teams scouring the island on behalf of their companies. They would have to leave Sav for either Negril or Montego Bay. Accomodation was a real problem.you know how it is...us women are a lot more fussy than men as to where we lay our heads down at night.

"I had noticed a piece of land for sale and convinced the owner to allow me to pay for it in four installments. What I had not realised was the true size of the property."

The humorous side of Allen comes out as she shares with Thursday Life tales of the squatters, some of whom begged for time to move off sections of the property she did not even realise was part of her sale agreement.

Five years later, on five acres of well-manicured lawns stands the very successful Hotel Commingle, a name Roger and Jennifer found in the Concise Oxford dictionary meaning 'to come mix and blend'. This formula seems to have worked well and they have created an environment of a veritable country home.

"I still remember my very first guest - Bradley Bernard -he occupied Room 103. I try to ensure that my 15 full-time staff are friendly but not too familiar. We're constantly upgrading, you know, adding a bit of this and that so that when the regulars come they see something new, something different."
Indeed as she speaks she points to the newly installed jacuzzi and we've seen the large, comfy rooms "We've had everybody here from the Reggae Boyz to government ministers," she says proudly.

A look through her bridal catalogue is a testimony both to the many weddings, parties and anniversaries that she has co-ordinated as well as to influences from her travels around the world.

"We work hard, so when it's time to vacation we spend a month away and I am literally not available. She shares with us details of her Alaskan cruise as well as her month touring Europe. "God," she says "has been good to her" and she in turn has brought into the biblical expression that God helps those who help themselves. "I've had the usual difficulties, be they parish-related problems or just getting by. I've learnt to do a lot of things myself: I decorated the bathrooms myself, I did the drapes. I'm a very hands-on type of person. I believe that women should be able to stand on their own, both physically and financially. If she loses her husband she should be able to carry on." These are the words of a woman who describes herself as "shy and reserved," but who understands the importance of giving back to the community that has nurtured her.

Under her watch as president of the Optimist Club, her members gained the prestigious Grand Slam award for excellent work with young people of the community as well as the major improvement work at the Savanna-la-Mar infirmary. Still very much involved in the community, Allen is now anticipating the challenges of a community service club as well as a wedding party coming in from the United Kingdom. This is her life, her own bustling metropolis.

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Kevin Sangster - a man of letters
published: Thursday | May 1, 2008

Amitabh Sharma, Features Coordinator

"I think of myself as a voracious reader," says Kevin Sangster. "I like to keep abreast with what's going on internationally."

It is this love for reading that has kept this career attorney writing letters to the Editor of The Gleaner for more than 10 years. "It is my way of feeling that I am still connected," says Sangster, who migrated to the United States with his family when he was 16 years old.

Over the 10 years, Sangster has been expressing his opinions on a range of subjects. "The issues that are pretty much out there in the media, anything that is of public concern," says Sangster.

"They are more so reflecting on politics, social and economic issues."

He thanked The Gleaner for giving him the opportunity to express himself. "I appreciate The Gleaner for reaching out and giving me a chance to connect to my country."

Sangster, born in Westmoreland, attended Mannings School and then went on to earn a degree in law in Pennsylvania. He returned to Jamaica and earned a legal education certificate from the Normal Manley Law School, University of the West Indies.

He says that crime in Jamaica is a major issue and feels that it is important to improve the image of the country across the globe. "I believe that the people should be properly educated and get meaningful employment," he says. "It certainly takes proper leadership to make inroads in dealing with crime," he adds.

Gets positive feedback

The attorney says that he gets a lot of feedback from the letters that he writes.

"I get mostly positive feedback but sometimes get criticised," he says. "More often than not when I touch on hard political issues," adds Sangster.

He wants to return to Jamaica in the near future and pursue politics. "I am very much politically inclined," Sangster professes. "I want to contribute politically to the development of Jamaica."

amitabh.sharma@gleanerjm.com

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Westmoreland: Cosmond Keith Jackson - Hardworking and persistent
published: Tuesday | August 30, 2005

Claudia Gardner, Gleaner Writer

Cosmond Jackson has been described as a sympathetic person, who continues to render assistance to unfortunate persons. - CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS

HANOVER:

WESTMORELAND'S GOVERNOR-General's Achievement Awardee for 2005 is stalwart business leader and philanthropist, Cosmond Jackson.

Mr. Jackson was born on February 5, 1964, to parents Bertram and Nelly Jackson, and grew up in Hertford, West-moreland. His early childhood years were spent at Hertford Basic School, Petersfield and Unity Primary, and later the Mannings High School and the Bethlehem Moravian Teachers' College.

He holds a diploma and a first degree in business administration and is a Justice of the Peace for the parish.

Mr. Jackson has been described as a sympathetic person, who continues to render assistance to unfortunate persons, and did so even as a child when resources were scarce.

GOOD WORK ETHICS

His early career interest was in the field of electrical engi-neering, but he was unable to pursue this because of limited financial resources. Like many rural young men, he was forced to enter the working world at an early age, and so gained employment at the Jamaica National Building Society (JNBS) as a teller, where he was later promoted to accounts clerk.

News of his good work ethic and outstanding performance spread and reached beyond the JNBS and, as a result, Mr. Jackson was later drafted to the National Commercial Bank, where he was promoted within three years to the supervisory level.

Mr. Jackson later joined the Savanana-la-Mar branch of the Billy Craig Merchant Bank, as a manager in May 1992, after the head of the company approached him. At the time of his employment and although that branch had been opened since November 1991, the company had only one client with a balance of $200,000.

However, within two months of his arrival, Mr. Jackson increased the branch's portfolio by over 4,000 per cent.

FRUITFUL YEARS

In 1997, Mr. Jackson was among the few employees retained by Dehring, Bunting, and Golding, the new owner of the bank. He was promoted to senior manager and given the task of implementing his own business development strategies. By 1999, the Savanna-la-Mar branch had grown tremendously and by 2000, he was promoted to the post of regional vice-president.

Led by Mr. Jackson, the Savanna-la-Mar branch has been a model branch for Dehring, Bunting and Golding, having won the Branch of the Year award for three consecutive years from 2001 to 2003. In May 2004, he was promoted to regional vice-president in charge of Savanna-la-Mar, Montego Bay and Ocho Rios.

Mr. Jackson has been married for the past 18 years, to Jocelyn Jackson, and is the father of three children. He continues to share a very special relationship with his parents who still reside at Hertford in the parish.

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BIZARRE! nurse kills self, two daughters; murder-suicide shocks nation
published: Sunday | November 4, 2007

Contributed photos
LEFT: Nurse Carol Waldron in earlier years at the Exed Nursing School in Kingston.
CENTRE: Kadijah Waldron
LEFT: Carol Waldron and husband Michael, with baby Ashley.

Glenroy Sinclair and Nagra Plunkett, Assignment Coordinators Murder-suicide took on a bizarre face in the tourist capital of Montego Bay, St. James, yesterday, when a 41-year-old critical-care nurse reportedly injected and killed her two children with what is believed to be potassium chloride, before taking her own life.

Their bodies were discovered shortly after 6:00 a.m. yesterday, in the room of a small hotel in Montego Bay, where they had checked in Friday evening.

Dead are Carol Waldron, who was employed to the Savanna-la-Mar Hospital, Kadijah Waldron, a fourth-form student of the Mannings School and three-month-old Ashley Waldron.

Seven-page suicide note

According to the police, Mrs. Waldron left behind a seven-page suicide note in which she detailed marital problems. The police also said several syringes were found inside the hotel room. A security guard employed to the hotel heard strange sounds coming from inside the room. He informed another worker, who then entered the room by breaking the glass door on the balcony. The police were summoned and on their arrival, the bodies of three females were discovered.

Wrists slashed

Mrs. Waldron, according to the police, had attempted to commit suicide by hanging but the rope broke. Her body was found in the bath tub with the wrists slashed. She had also supposedly injected herself with the dangerous substance.

"In the suicide note, she claimed her husband told her that he was going to England to study law. But she later found out that he was having an affair with another woman in England and said she could not take much more of it," one of the police investigators told The Sunday Gleaner. He further said that Mrs. Waldron in the note repeatedly said she "could not take it anymore" and begged her relatives, especially her mother, to forgive her. She singled out a brother and sister whom she asked to take care of their children.

"There were so many other things in the letter explaining what they (the couple) have been through in the 18 years of the marriage," said one of the senior detectives who read the letter.

Taking it hard Mrs. Waldron's family is taking it hard.

"Something really go so? Carol really kill herself and the two pickney dem?" asked a tearful Lena Clayton, Nurse Waldron's mother.

Mrs. Clayton was in a crowd of grieving relatives and friends who gathered at the family home in Grange Hill, Westmoreland, as news of the tragedy spread.