Black Lives Matter, Too

In the last few years I’ve avoided social media and tend not to get into dialogues about race relations, politics or religion. However over the last few weeks I’ve seen how our perceptions as individuals have been skewed by our own experiences and privileges. Being Jamaican, I was fortunate to grow up in a society where I was a part of the racial majority. As such, I never experienced systematic racism as many of my African American brothers and sisters. However I have been careful not to dismiss their experiences because of my failure to fully understand their reality. 

2014 in review

Below is the annual review of my blog as provided by WordPress.Com

Thanks to everyone who took the time to read, comment and share my posts with others.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 18,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 7 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Turning Adversity into Success – A Student’s Journey to Medical School

Growing up everyone can remember playing make believe, we found any inanimate object we had and created a world around it. Once I turned my backyard into an olympic stadium. The trees became people, and the grass became the track on which

A Life Well Lived

I have faced many obstacles in my life. Obstacles that took both emotional and physical strength to overcome, yet the most challenging obstacle of all is learning to accept that death is a reality of life. It is a lesson I have tried to understand time and time again, but the answer continues to evade me. The truth is that life is filled with complexities that we may never truly grasp, like poverty in a world of rich resources, or why an all powerful God would allow humanity to endure pain and suffering, sickness and death.

In Memory of Norma Rivera

This post is dedicated to my late aunt, Norma Rivera. The post is a written copy of a tribute I gave at her memorial service. Included within the tribute are excerpts from a previous blog post (It’s a Matter of Life and Death).

In Memory of Aunt Norma
Tribute given on: April 16, 2014

No amount of emotional preparation can prepare you for a moment such as this. A moment we all know we will confront at some point in our lives, the moment of our final earthly goodbye to a close friend or family member.

Attack of the GPS – How my GPS tried to kill me!

In ten miles, turn left onto Oak Street, then keep right. Rerouting! What? I just did what you said you idiot! The preceding sentence is an example of the types of conversations I typically have with my navigation system. Needless to say we get into a lot of arguments. As a university recruiter I drive thousands of miles each month, and being directionally challenged I rely heavily on my GPS which I affectionately call Chin-Chin.

Tragedy in Connecticut

Hate, intolerance, and irrationality causes us to live in a world of uncertainty. We use our ideologies to defend injustice against others. We use religion to say that our morals give us the right to discriminate. We use the name of God and the Bible to defend a precept that God is a God of justice and not equality. 

The U.S. Presidency and Race Relations

On November 6th the United States went to the polls and elected President Barack Obama for a second term in office. Just four years earlier history was made with President Obama becoming the first person of color to attain the nation’s highest office. The moment Obama signaled his intent to run for office, the issue of race became the focal point of many political discussions.