• Stories

    The Three Little Pigs Retold

    June 6, 2023 - By 

    Manny, Mello and Millie sat under the mango tree wondering what’s going to happen now that their mother lost her job in the worst economic crisis the world has ever seen since the depression. Misty told the pigs that things are going to be a little bit tight and as soon as they turned sixteen, they would have to find jobs. The pigs’ father ran off with Misty’s best friend soon after they were born, leaving her to care for them as a single mother. They heard he was living in Florida and had ten other pigs. Manny was the…

  • Health and Wellness - Kidney Disease

    An Open Letter to Jamaica’s Minister Of Health

    October 24, 2020 - By 

    Hello Mr. Tufton, I hope you’re well and having a good day. I see that you’re fighting the good fight with regards to COVID-19 and appreciate your efforts. I try my best to ‘tan a mi yard’ (as much as my work permits), wear my mask and wash my hands frequently.  On February 12, 2020 I was diagnosed with stage 5 kidney disease and had to have emergency dialysis. As a renal disease patient I try my best to stay protected. Which brings me to the reason for this letter. Renal disease patients in Jamaica are at a high disadvantage because…

  • Women's Issues

    Abortion: Public Policy Is Not the Dominion of Priests

    September 14, 2020 - By 

    “I didn’t want you to judge me,” was the reply I got from an old friend upon inquiring a few years ago, why she’d had an abortion. I had known her since primary school and, up to that moment, I thought we’d shared everything. It was disheartening to realize that she’d made a life-changing decision in such painful isolation. But this is the story of countless Jamaican women shamed into silence, forced to hide pregnancies lest they be accused of immorality, infidelity, or worse. Both by their partners, and the larger community which ascribes to abortion with such chilling phrases…

  • Women's Issues

    ‘Cockroach Nuh Business Inna Fowl Fight’: Violence against Jamaican Women

    July 19, 2020 - By 

    Last year a former colleague; daughter, friend, mother, sister, aunt was violently taken from us by her partner of more than ten years, who subsequently took his own life in the same incident. A young man lost his mother, and we are left with more questions than answers, and more grief. I’ve heard these stories so many times, but never once would I have thought that I’d be touched by it so directly.