Category Global health and disparities

FMM 10 12 18 Who am I?

“Be thine own palace, or the world’s thy jail.” ~ John Donne. When I left Jamaica in the mid 70’s, I hadn’t heard the word ‘Soca’ used to describe the music we associated with those small islands of the Caribbean.  It was Calypso music back then, and we mostly heard it in a 5-minute block […]

FMM 10 5 18 Greatest Good

“The countenance of one man brighteneth another; Iron sharpeneth iron” ~ Joseph Hill, Culture.  I have never doubted the power of the mind.  My mother was a strong believer in mind over matter.  It mostly had to do with you ignoring all of those things you wanted to use as excuses not to get a […]

FMM 9 28 18 Sipple out there

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” ~ Maya Angelou. Jamaicans (and maybe many other people), tend to blame many of their symptoms on gas.  Shoulder pain? Gas.  Chest pain? Gas.  Of course, the obvious ones like bloating and cramping, also gas.  In England the term for passing gas (flatulence, […]

FMM 9 21 18 Do your Thing

“Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” ~ Berthold Auerbach. One of the challenges of writing a message every Friday morning, is trying to knit together the variety of threads that catch my interest during the week.  Some weeks random items come together in a harmonious message, eventually; at other times […]

FMM 9 7 18 Raising the Bar

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” ~  Nelson Mandela. My father-in-law was a character. He was well known in the village where he lived, for he was loud, he did […]

8 31 18 I’m with Them

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” ~ Frederick Douglass. Music formed the backdrop to my formative years.  In a little Jamaican town where the Saturday open air market was our mall, and the only place we got dressed up to go was church, we milked every ounce of pleasure out of music.  […]

FMM 8 24 18 New World Order

“Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.”~ Stephen Hawking. I never forget the first time I heard the saying that the definition of insanity is doing things the same way and expecting to get different results.  I was in one of those continuing education classes, trying to get my hours at the last minute […]

FMM 8 3 18 Book of Rules

“It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have”. ~ James A. Baldwin. I know most people love to say that preachers’ and teachers’ kids are the worst.  In Jamaica we would say ‘parson pickni a di baddiss!’  But the reality of growing up in […]

FMM 7 20 18 It’s only Birds

“Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.”~ Langston Hughes. There are a few songs from my childhood memories that feature birds.  In wintertime in England we worried about poor robin-redbreast, who had to keep himself warm, by hiding his head under his wing (poor thing).  We […]

FMM 7 13 18 The Damage Done

“In a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”~ Unknown. One of the challenges of becoming a nurse is learning the language.  First there is the medical terminology – many words are derived from Latin, so if you know any French or Spanish that may be a little helpful. But […]