Finally! Jonah and his family get a home
‘Oh God, man. Mi thank unno, mi thank God’
BY CONRAD HAMILTON Senior staff reporter [email protected]
Sunday, June 17, 2012

THREE months after their destitute living condition was highlighted in a Sunday Observer exclusive, Jonah Johnson, and his common-law wife Hyacinth Lewis are now waking up to more than just a new roof over their heads.
The March 25 story detailed the deplorable conditions of the couple and their five children who at the time were living in what at first glance appeared to have been an abandoned building atop a hill overlooking the small farming community of Stepney in St Ann. A tiny section of the badly rundown structure, measuring less than the size of the average bathroom, served as the family home. The occupants had no bed, neither was there any other sign of basic conveniences, apart from a bundle of clothes on which they slept.
Some members of the large crowd which gathered in Stepney, St Ann on Thursday, observing workmen as they put the finishing touches to the new family home.
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Stunned by the disclosure, scores of Jamaicans — both at home and in the diaspora — offered financial and other support to the Government agencies which co-ordinated the assistance for the family.
That initiative, which began when a school principal went in search of help for the family, reached its high point on Thursday last week when a throng of community members, and representatives of state and non-government organisations gathered in Johnson’s yard, as workmen from relief agency, Food For the Poor, completed a two-bedroom house for the family.
For St Ann Health Department representative Michelle Whyte, the event was heart-warming, as she was the one who was approached by the school principal who had requested assistance on the family’s behalf. “It is so overwhelming to see them moving into their home. It’s not my home, but I can just imagine how happy they are to be having a shelter over their heads tonight, and you can see where they were living before; a mean, this is like a mansion,” said Whyte, who stated that the initiative has motivated her to continue offering her services to rural communities.
“It has encouraged me to do more. This is something that I always wanted to do, helping people, and this is why I chose to work in the community,” she said.
For Richardo Aiken of the Social Development Commission (SDC), the completion of the house and the other forms of assistance to Johnson and his family resulted from good co-ordination among all the agencies.
“When we discovered the family, we discovered that the housing situation was just one of the issues that needed attention, so what we did was bring in all the agencies to have a multi-agency approach to addressing the situation,” he explained. “We realise that no one agency can bring forth meaningful change, so what we did was pull together all the entities.
“When we found out his (Johnson’s) situation, we had to contact his relatives overseas to get permission to erect the house on the land he now occupies. After that, we met with them, and through Food For the Poor, the member of parliament and others we did the foundation for the house. To be honest, it’s a proud moment, almost teary-eyed. Seeing the situation the first time and actually putting all the things in place, being in contact with all the persons, including the member of parliament, I feel more fulfilled,” said Aiken.
Similar sentiments were expressed by Astley Dawson of the St Ann Poor Relief Department, who in March, when he first visited the family, described the living conditions as the worst he had seen in his more than 30 years with the department.
The many community members who were on hand for the work day could hardly restrain themselves as they praised the entities that assisted their neighbours. “Them really did need the help but, we couldn’t help them, we couldn’t manage,” said Carmelita Davis as she stood among several men and women who had gathered at the front of the new dwelling.
As the workmen applied paint to the new structure, and amidst the chatter, Jonah Johnson was besides himself with joy. “Oh God, man. Mi thank unno, mi thank God, although mi a Rasta, mi love God,” said the beaming Johnson as he carried a bed — donated by one of the agencies — into his new abode.
As he stopped to speak with the Sunday Observer, his common-law wife joined in and expressed gratitude. “Mi feel good fi know that the house come, and thanks to all who support mi,” said Lewis, even as she bemoaned the absence of her children; Jonah, 8; Alesha, 7; Jordan, 4; and the youngest, two-year-old Kimone.
The children were placed in State care following a visit in March by Child Development Agency (CDA) representatives who had concluded that their living conditions were unacceptable.
Lewis, who had just returned from a court appearance in Brown’s Town, said the children wanted to return home with her. “Dem crying fi come home, dem miss dem father, especially the two big one dem,” she said. Her first child, Javaune, the product of a previous relationship, was not taken by the CDA officials, as he was with his mother at another relative’s house.
But for Johnson, the return of the children is the only thing that will complete the transformation. “Oh God, man. Mi can’t eat no food. Every time mi tek up mi dinner and tek the first bite, mi haffi spit it out back, ’cause when dem did deh ’round, anytime the dinner come to mi, mi always have the little baby or one of dem to mek dem taste it first. Me couldn’t build one like this (house), and a dat the judge say, him say anytime mi get the house mi can get back the kids, if mi don’t get the house mi can’t get dem back,” Johnson explained.
Based on discussions with the representative of the CDA who was on location on Thursday, the children should be released to their parents by the middle of next month.
“We had four of them in our care, they had to be separated, the two smaller ones in Montego Bay and the two older ones in St Mary,” said the CDA’s Carlyn Stewart. “The smaller ones we wanted a nursery-type setting for them, and the older ones we had to consider continuity of schooling. The children were before the court today (Thursday) again, and I am pleased to say that this will be the last time they have to come to court and not be released to their parents. We are pleased that with what is happening today we can comfortably report to the court that the children can be released to their parents.”
Meanwhile, several of the representatives of the various State agencies who were present in Stepney on Thursday disclosed that significant efforts have been made to improve Johnson’s ability to provide for his family. In addition to being placed on the Government’s poor relief programme, the Rural Agricultural Development Agency (RADA) has joined the efforts and has given farming supplies to Johnson, who now has close to two acres of crops, primarily sweet peppers, under cultivation.
Donald Robinson, the RADA parish manager, told the Sunday Observer that his office will be providing much-needed technical advice to the farmer, as some of his techniques were not efficient.
When the Sunday Observer visited the house in March, Johnson was struggling to purchase agricultural supplies, and the small plot of cultivated land was being ravaged by severe drought conditions.
“Me improve ’cause mi get little help fi tek the farming further. Mi couldn’t buy the fertiliser and mi get one bag and a half and it stretch me out far. Mi couldn’t buy cabbage seed and mi get a pack and me get fi drop it. So next year mi suppose to get better,” said Johnson, who plans to take the produce to market in Brown’s Town.
Member of parliament for South West St Ann, Keith Walford, who was instrumental in the efforts to assist the family, expressed satisfaction with the outcome.
“It’s a really great feeling, you being here and seeing what was happening, and seeing what we have accomplished today, it really moves my heart to know that we have helped another family,” Walford said as he explained that a constituency fund has been established to help other poor families in his constituency, which has some of Jamaica’s poorest households.
He added that Noranda Bauxite company contributed to the efforts to assist Johnson and his family, and indicated that other destitute households in the constituency could benefit from a continuation of the partnership with the many stakeholders who contributed to the initiative to improve the living conditions of Johnson and his family.

Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Finally–Jonah-and-his-family-get-a-home_11714821#ixzz1y4U69qvq

Homosexuality: A “modern” trend?

Written by Victory Oyeleke

Ricky Martin, Singer

DEPENDING on where you reside, homosexuality is either widely accepted and celebrated or a criminal offence that is punishable. However, just a few centuries back, the general concession on homosexuality was, “vile and unnatural”. It was a time when same sex couples were harassed by the police, vilified by the media, and jailed. But like everything else in today’s society, where political correctness is placed above morality, homosexuality is now trending. Although British Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Ms Deborah Bronnert described homosexuality as a “modern” practice, it is in fact not so.

Homosexuality can be traced back to Sodom and Gomorrah which serves as a cautionary tale of God’s wrath and debate about its causes and consequences has been going on for centuries but, never before in human history has it had such level of acceptance as with the West championing its cause. The same West, whose moral code is fashioned against the Bible which clearly condemns such act. Leviticus 18:22 sees homosexual acts as an abomination to God. Leviticus 20:13 says: If a man has sex with another man, kill them both. Even Islam supports this notion. “Do ye commit lewdness such as no people in creation (ever) committed before you? For ye practice your lusts on men in preference to women: ye are indeed a people transgressing beyond bounds.” Qur’an 7:80-81

Initially, hostility towards homosexuality was wide- spread throughout European religious and secular institutions and homosexuality was tag as “unnatural” with stiff legal sanctions handed out to perpetrators. Later on, medicine and psychiatry began competing with religion and the law for jurisdiction over sexuality. As a consequence, debate about homosexuality expanded from the realms of sin and crime to include that of pathology. This historical shift was generally considered progressive because a sick person was less blameful than a sinner or criminal. However, even within medicine and psychiatry, homosexuality was not universally viewed as pathology. Sigmund Freud believed all human beings were innately bisexual, and that they become heterosexual or homosexual as a result of their experiences with parents and others (Freud, 1905) in a letter to a concern mother in 1935, Freud agreed that homosexual orientation should not be viewed as a form of pathology “Homosexuality is assuredly no advantage, but it is nothing to be ashamed of, no vice, no degradation, it cannot be classified as an illness; we consider it to be a variation of the sexual function produced by a certain arrest of sexual development. Many highly respectable individuals of ancient and modern times have been homosexuals, several of the greatest men among them (Plato, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, etc.). It is a great injustice to persecute homosexuality as a crime, and cruelty too…. “If [your son] is unhappy, neurotic, torn by conflicts, inhibited in his social life, analysis may bring him harmony, peace of mind, full efficiency whether he remains a homosexual or gets changed….”

Later psychoanalysts rejected Freud’s assumption of inherent bisexuality, arguing instead that heterosexuality is natural and that homosexuality is a “reparative” attempt to achieve sexual pleasure when normal heterosexual outlet proves too threatening. Other psychoanalysts have also rejected this view.

Until the early 1970’s the U.S psychiatric establishment classified homosexuality as a mental illness, but that designation was dropped amid increased political activity and efforts by homosexuals to be seen as individuals exercising different sexual preferences rather than aberrant personalities. Therefore, homosexuality is not a mental disorder and no research has found inherent association between sexual orientations and psychopathology. Both heterosexual behaviour and homosexual behaviour are normal aspects of human sexuality several decades of research and clinical experience have led all mainstream medical and mental health organisations to conclude that these orientations represent normal forms of human experience.
Lesbian, gay and bisexual relationships are normal forms of human bonding. This resulted in the abandoning of , homosexuality as a mental disorder.

Since it is now an orientation instead of a disorder, homosexuals has the choice to be with whomever they want to be with and preventing them is seen as eroding their human rights.

The media that once tagged them vile now celebrates them. Being gay is now both trendy and posh. Gay men are seen as fashion forward, sophisticated and this has increases house value in areas they live in. Children as young as 10 years of age are declaring themselves gays and no one thinks this is morally wrong. Even science does not support homosexuality, which sees sex as a means to an end. The end being, the propagation of the human race. This end can never be fulfilled by homosexual practice. Eventually the human race may become extinct. At present, 10 countries have legalised gay marriages with Denmark, Uk and Brazil have been homosexuals some sort of support but not fully endorsing them, however, things are about to change in the UK as David Cameron plans to legalise gay marriage. Who would have thought that a conservative government would become so liberal or perhaps in UK’s usual copycat fashion of the Americans he is just following President Obama’s lead as who became the first U.S president to publicly express support for gay marriage. During an interview in May he stated “It is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married,” Hollywood has taken to homosexuality like fish to water and in the process indoctrinated million others. Most celebrities are gay, lesbian or bisexual. What next will this contemporary society accept? Pedophilia?

Madison Demecia

6 hours ago via Mobile

• 7 people like this.
• • 

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    6 hours ago · Like · 1
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    5 hours ago · Like
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    4 hours ago · Like