Social Impact with Emma » London : A Jamaica Gleaner Blog

But…Can It Be Business as Usual?

April 27th, 2019

Perhaps it’s just me, but the year 2019 seems to have been one of considerable upset for the world. A second, extremely fierce cyclone has arrived in Mozambique (the first one killed over 900 people, although it hardly received mainstream media coverage). On the beautiful island of Sri Lanka, which I visited in late 2017 and […]

The Book of Rules: Jamaica’s Obsession With Physical Appearance

September 12th, 2016

In the past week or so, the “Hopefield Prep Affair” has rumbled on – starting (and continuing) in social media and carried over into traditional media reports, current affairs and talk show discussions. Everyone has an opinion on this. The hashtag #unkemptJA has been quite overworked on Twitter in particular, accompanied by defiant “selfies” from young Jamaicans […]

Brexit Bytes

June 27th, 2016

This morning I was a guest on Television Jamaica’s Smile Jamaica with Dr. Jermaine McCalpin of the University of the West Indies. We attempted to make some sense out of the conundrum that is “Brexit” – last week’s referendum on whether to leave the European Union – despite the early hour. I fell back on one […]

Room To Breathe: Greening Our Cities and Towns

January 14th, 2015

I had an interesting conversation with a young Jamaican woman I know recently. She is currently visiting the island from Canada with her eight-year-old son. It was instructive, she said, to view Jamaica through her young son’s eyes. He expressed his thoughts on arriving in Kingston with a refreshing bluntness, as children often do. While […]