Social Impact with Emma » United States : A Jamaica Gleaner Blog

How About An Interfaith Prayer Breakfast?

January 20th, 2018

I was present at this year’s 38th National Leadership Prayer Breakfast, the annual ritual at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel. I was seeing it for the first time, and was struck by the huge room full of people. A few women were wearing hats and most people were in their “Sunday best.” It was dominated by […]

Jamaica’s Ability to Respond to Natural Disasters Is Almost Non-Existent

January 11th, 2018

On Tuesday night, while many of us were tucked up in bed, a tsunami alert for Jamaica and other islands went out, triggered by a huge earthquake between Honduras and the Cayman Islands, for an hour or so; it was then discontinued. The next day, there were some careless and downright silly comments on social […]

Hurricanes and the Media: Yes, We Have a Choice

September 10th, 2017

Hurricane Irma (and her boyfriend, following along behind, José) both decided not to bother with Jamaica, for which we are thankful. While the north coast had blue skies and sunshine however, down in Kingston we have had heavy showers, stopping and starting, and thunder grumbling away. A storm on Friday has sent our dogs into […]

The Country As A Child

September 4th, 2017

This morning, I read a powerful quote on Facebook, from Richard Wright’s Black Boy (1945): Our too-young and too-new America, lusty because it is lonely, aggressive because it is afraid, insists upon seeing the world in terms of good and bad, the holy and the evil, the high and the low, the white and the black; our […]

We Need More Than a “False Peace”

August 28th, 2017

Today is the 54th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s famous March on Washington and his iconic I Have a Dream speech. His words never fail to move people – even many who have no connection with the U.S. or with the African American experience. Browsing through Twitter this morning, I noted some comments from Dr. […]

National Integrity Action Works With Communities Part 2: Youth Crime Watch of Jamaica

August 7th, 2017

National Integrity Action (NIA) always has a full plate of activities. Its small, young but closely-knit team, working from its New Kingston hub, reaches out to a wide cross-section of communities and age groups across the island – from uptown Kingston to rural St. Elizabeth. NIA believes in partnerships; and one of its current partners […]

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