Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Heart Disease

Jamaican Children Should Know Their Grandparents
B. Waine Kong, Ph.D., JD., and Stephanie H. Kong, M.D.

In addition to Earl Woods (Tiger Woods’ father) who never met his beautiful grand childen, the lives of more than 200 people who live in the Caribbean are cut short each and every day by a preventable disease. While we are over-concerned about violence, accidents, AIDS and Cancer, Cardiovascular disease, including heart attack (myocardial infarction), brain attack (stroke), and heart failure (weak heart muscle) is responsible for the demise of half of our grandparents. Unfortunately, all our families have tasted the bitter fruit of a loved one leaving us too soon due to heart disease.

Imagine that a group of us were having a picnic lunch on the bank of a river when we look out and see babies floating in the water. I imagine that that some of us would jump in, rescue the babies and take heroic steps to revive them. More importantly, however, I would hope that some of the really smart members of the group would run upstream to stop whoever is throwing babies off the bridge. We must obviously provide great care to those who already have disease but we must teach and motivate those who are not yet affected to prevent disease as well as reduce individual risk factors.

Children deserve to know their grandparents so they will become GREAT grandparents. When you board an airplane, you are advsed that, in case of emergency, put the oxygen mast on yourself first and then take care of othes. If you are unable to function, you will not be able to take care of people who depend on you. Even the heart pumps blood to itself before sending it to the rest of your body.

If we are ever going to solve our social problems (juvenile delinquency, unplanned teenage pregnancies, underachievement, unhealthy habits and the crisis in our relationships) we need more grandparents in our communities. A child is only a grandparent away from growing up to be a healthy, happy, contributing member of society. Other children around the world take for granted that they will grow up knowing the nurturing and wisdom of their grandparents, and even their great grandparents, but, due to the high rate of deaths from cardiovascular disease, accidents and violence, children in the Caribbean are fortunate if they have one grandparent (almost always a grandmother) by the time they celebrate their 21st birthday. Who will pass on our legacy to our youth? An African proverb says: “When a grandparent dies, an entire library goes up in flames.”

While heart disease has been viewed as unavoidable in the past, we can now shout from the rooftops that it is preventable. Dying from a heart attack or stroke is no longer a fact of life that we have to accept. Diabetes, heart disease, obesity, high blood pressure, cholesterol and other chronic conditions consume too much of our health care expenditures. Preventive care reduces needless suffering and premature death, improves the quality of care, enhances the quality of our lives, and lowers costs. Yet, comparatively very little of our healthcare dollars are spent on “prevention”.

By following our “Seven Steps to Good Health,” you can live with the confidence that heart disease will not interfere with the quality of your life. You can’t live forever, but you can dramatically reduce the chances that heart disease or stroke will be the cause of your demise. Our success will, however, depend on a radical shift toward prevention and public health, even for those who are already overweight and have other risk factors. It is never too early or too late to adopt a healthy lifestyle.

While we all subscribe to the adage that “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” we still allow the tyranny of the urgent (drowning Babies) to prevent us from taking wise steps to avoid disaster. So, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and a ton of trouble. Those who usually wait until the horse is out before closing the barn door should realize that, with heart disease, your first symptom is often your last. Half of all people who experience heart attack or stroke symptoms die before reaching a source of care.

The basic unit of life is a cell. Our body is made up of billions of them. Each one requires a constant supply of oxygen and other nutrients to stay alive, multiply and continue to do the jobs that Nature assigned them. Whenever the cells burn energy (oxygen) to accomplish their various tasks, they create waste. So, each cell also needs to have its “garbage” picked up. Cells are grouped to form organs which help us to move, taste, smell, think and do our work. The reason we get tired when we work or exercise is that we are using our oxygen faster than it is replenished. We catch up when we rest, catch our breath and re-establish input-output balance.

Most people, even cardiologists, associate the heart with love, bravery, cowardly behaviour and heart ache. We could go on and on about various characterizations of the heart in religious texts, art and literature, but we don’t have the heart. However, the function of the heart and blood vessels is really to deliver the oxygen and nutrients to each cell, pick up waste, cleanse and enrich the blood before sending it out again. This is a closed system that repeats itself about 70 times per minute, 24 hours a day, and 365 days per year for our entire lives. Our heart never takes a break, pumping 2,000 gallons of blood per day. As the good book says: 'We are fearfully and wonderfully made!’

Heart disease represents an “interference” with blood flow. This commonly takes the form of an obstruction such as atherosclerosis (gradual build-up of plaque in the blood vessels what we use to call “hardening of the arteries”) or an embolus (a clot), a haemorrhage (bleeding from a rupture at a weak area of a blood vessel), a spasm, or blood that is either too thick or thin to be pumped properly. Cardiovascular disease prevents our vital organs from getting all the blood that is needed. This can occur in the heart, in the brain or in an extremity like a toe or leg. When these parts of the body do not get enough blood, the cells simply starve to death.

Arteries take blood from the heart and veins return blood to the heart. With every beat, blood is pumped out of the heart and travels through the large arteries which branch out like the limbs of a tree until the arteries meet a network of arterioles connected to venules (capillaries). As blood passes through the capillaries, oxygen and nutrients are delivered to the cells, the waste and carbon dioxide are picked up and the blood flow continues through the veins. As blood passes through the kidneys, the blood is filtered and many of the impurities leave the body as urine. Once blood returns to the heart through the veins, it is pumped to the lungs where a great exchange takes place: carbon dioxide for oxygen. Carbon dioxide leaves the body as we exhale and new oxygen enrich the blood as we inhale. The oxygenated blood travels back to the heart, and once again is sent on its way to all the cells of the body.

If some of the cells of your heart do not receive enough oxygen because the blood supply is compromised, these cells die, possibly causing a heart attack. The chest pain you may encounter when the heart is starving for oxygen (angina) is the heart muscle screaming at you to send blood. If the heart muscle becomes flabby or is damaged (like an old girdle) and therefore not strong enough to pump the blood from the heart efficiently, you have heart failure.

The early warning signs of a possible heart attack are: tightness, pressure, squeezing or a burning sensation in the centre of the chest that may radiate down the arms; nausea, shortness of breath and sweating. If you experience these symptoms, seek the care of a medical professional (preferably an emergency room) immediately. At a moment like this, you will be ill-advised to drive your own automobile as there is a chance that you will black out before reaching the hospital. Here are the seven steps to Good Health:

1. Be spiritually active. An important study from the University of Texas tells us that people who attend church regularly, live seven to fourteen years longer than those who do not go to church. Apparently, the fellowship, good will, meditation, inspirational words and singing together increase our ability to cope. According to Dr. Malcolm Taylor: “If you have God, family and friends, you may stumble, but you will never hit the ground.”

2. Take charge of your blood pressure. Despite steady progress over the past thirty three years, uncontrolled high blood pressure is projected to increase by 60% over the next twenty years. Tell your doctor you want to keep your blood pressure as close to goal (120/80 mm Hg) as possible.

3. Control your cholesterol. Keep your HDL high (>1.0 mmol/L), and your LDL low (<3.4 mmol/l), and total cholesterol low (< 5.0 mmol/L). High cholesterol leads to plaque, which restricts the flow of blood. Diet, exercise, and statin therapy are the keys to maintaining healthy cholesterol levels.

4. Track your blood sugar and maintain ideal weight. Obesity and diabetes track each other. As the rate of obesity goes up, so does diabetes. If you are overweight, you run a high risk of developing diabetes which increases your risk of heart attacks, strokes, blindness, amputations and impotence. Why must sugar and fats accompany every expression of love and every celebration? By reducing obesity, we are taking a swing at diabetes. Three out of four diabetics will die from heart disease and stroke. If you have the following symptoms, you should consult a doctor: Fatigue, blurred vision, excessive thirst, frequent urination, unexplained weight loss and non-healing wounds and sores. These may indicate that you have diabetes.

5. Enjoy regular exercise (30 minutes per day-every day), follow a sensible diet and get a good night’s sleep! Move those muscles. Increase your intake of fruits and vegetables, reduce fats and sugars, but most of all, eat less. Every little bit you do can ether help or hurt your health a little bit. Twenty years ago, 50% of children walked to school. Don’t be a fat maker by insisting that others eat more of what they do not need and resist being a victim of a fat maker also. Let’s be more creative about demonstrating love for each other than to force feed the ones you most care about. If you don’t sleep well, get a sleep study and then follow your doctor’s advice. Sleep apnea, a significant contributor to hypertension and heart disease, is more common among those who are obese.

6. Don’t smoke. Nobody argues with this any more, not even smokers. Smoking constricts the arteries, increases carbon monoxide, lowers the good cholesterol, and is the primary cause of lung cancer. According to Benjamin Waterhouse (1754-1846):
"Tobacco is a filthy weed,
That from the devil does proceed,
It drains your purse, it burn your clothes,
And makes a chimney of your nose."

Smoking is our most preventable cause of premature death.

7. Access better health care, get a check up and faithfully take your medication as prescribed. It is no longer acceptable for the most vulnerable among us to receive the worst care. Just because some of us are poor does not mean that we should be relegated to poor care. All members of society deserve to receive respectful health care. If you are dissatisfied with the care that you are receiving, then seek care elsewhere. More importantly, it does no good for you to be evaluated by a physician, have your condition diagnosed and medication prescribed if you do not then fill the prescription and take it as directed.

It is difficult to imagine that with all the sunshine, ocean, open spaces, and such a strong sports tradition, that 20% of children living in the Caribbean are overweight. All aesthetics aside, being fat ought not to be perceived as anything other than unhealthy. Obese children become obese adults who run the risk of dying from diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and kidney failure. Since 1980, we have seen a 50% increase in the incidence of obesity every decade. This dramatic rise in obesity is inevitably accompanied by an equally critical rise in diabetes, resulting in over 20% of Caribbean adults suffering from this awful disease. How has a society where we use to “walk and talk”, succumb to this plague of inactivity, diabetes and obesity?

The United States has taught the world that there isn’t enough money to pay for all the disease caused by obesity, lack of exercise, cholesterol, smoking and diabetes. However, the United States spends 20 cents of each dollar collected as revenue on health care. Still, the life expectancy of an average African American male is less than the life expectancy of Caribbean men. The United States has a so-called ‘state-of-the-art’ healthcare system, yet they are way behind the rest of the world in promoting health and well-being. When a patient has a disease, we treat the disease; similarly, when a large segment of our people has a disease, treat the country. If you want to reduce violence, crime and unwanted pregnancies, let children have the opportunity to know their grandparents---free from obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

The Caribbean needs a system that promotes health and not an expensive “healthcare system” that only treats disease. In a country like Jamaica, where the average household income is less than US$4,000 per year, we cannot afford to provide invasive and expensive medical services to treat illnesses that can and should have been prevented. A “System of Health” emphasizes prevention, while a “health care system” places emphasis on the treatment. By being proactive instead of reactive, we can inspire people to take health promotion and disease prevention seriously.

The Caribbean is composed of islands of sunshine and cool breeze. Europeans and Americans come to our islands to lose weight through exercise and heart healthy eating, so why can’t we take advantage of these home grown remedies? If we consider the fact that most of the disease that plague us and cost so much can be prevented, it becomes apparent that promotion of heart health and exercise would allow enormous savings for the health care system. In fact, just about all the heart attacks, heart failure, strokes, diabetes, kidney failure (diseases that kill 50% of us) could be prevented by making simple adjustments to our lifestyles. Being proactive in health can add 10 more years to enjoy the company of our grandchildren and guide them to a happy, healthy and productive life. The nursery rhyme about Humpty Dumpty is illustrative of those who lazily sit on walls only to have great falls and heart attacks that no physician, no matter how skilful can put them together again. If Humpty was not sitting around watching television and playing video games, his risks of heart disease would have been reduced. We can take an important message from this nursery rhyme by understanding that no matter how good our reactive plans in medicine and surgery may be, it will never be as good as prevention. A good doctor cures disease, a really great doctor prevent disease. If you are sick, you are not making money, you are spending it. Healthy people are much more likely to be wealthy people.

As far as the health and welfare of people living in the Caribbean is concerned, the challenges are unprecedented. But our greatest challenges present our greatest opportunities to excel. While our governments struggle daily with how to allocate our limited resources, it should be recognized that it would be a good investment to spend more on prevention. At present, less than 5% is spent on in this area and we need to increase our spending here to at least 25%. We should train “Community Health Advocates” for every community in our country and perhaps even identify the healthiest and most at risk communities. This way, we can educate and motivate our citizens to maintain good health.

The health of our peple is in perril. Just as it would be unconscionable not to have an infectious disease program, it is unacceptable not to have a cardiovascular disease prevention program. At the end of the day, we want a System of Health that actullly promote wellness, not just a healthcare system. Every citizen must recognize that if they do not take time to implement the seven steps to good health into our daily life, they will prematurely succumb to disease and abandon our grand children. God made us to be strong and physically fit, and by choosing to be “fat and lazy”, we will pay the price of dieing prematurely.

Response:

From: gabriella kadar
To: bwaine@bellsouth.net
Sent: Tue, February 23, 2010 11:31:07 PM
Subject: Heart disease and Jamaicans

Good evening Dr. Kong,

I am a dental surgeon working and living in Toronto, Canada. Back in 1981
when I graduated from dental school I moved to Trinidad and worked in San
Fernando for 2.25 years. Partly because of this experience I've always kept
an eye on what goes on in the West Indies. I've travelled relatively
extensively around and my most recent trip was back to Grenada (sep.2009).
The last time I was there was May 1982!!

Toronto Trinis always ask me about when I'm going 'bakome'. I've been
'assimilated'......LOL. (I spent a day in Trinidad this time.)

I've been keeping my eye on this for quite some time:

http://www.whocollab.od.mah.se/amro/jamaica/data/jamaicasaltfluor.html

Take a look at Olympic medal stats. Jamaica just suddenly went wild at the
Beijing games. Usain Bolt was born in 1986. You've got an entire generation
of young adults with intact dentitions. Interestingly Jamaica is the only
country where ONLY fluoridated salt is available. Elsewhere people have a
choice. Only in Jamaica is there such a huge improvement in dental health.

Jamaicans have always been exceptional. read: Jamaican Paradox.

When human beings possess a full set of teeth that function well they are
robust. There is a huge neuro-muscular-skeletal advantage provided by well
developed jaws, well developed face, wide nasal passages and a full
dentition.

Jamaicans have just started 'kicking Olympic butt'. Watch out world!!!!

I've read your blog in regards to heart disease. I'll hazard a guess that
people who have well developed robust physiques probably live longer and
have healthy hearts. They sleep better, recover from physical exertion
better, oygenate better, have stronger neck muscles and back muscles.....
there's a whole lot of positives acruing from well developed facial and
masticatory muscles.

Jamaica has always had a very strong physical education/sport culture. What
has changed to make Jamaicans into Olympic champions? Salt fluoridation.

cheers,

Dr. Gabriella Kadar
360 Bloor Street West, Suite 503
Toronto, Ontario M5S 1X1

416 924 3522
gkadar@bellnet.ca

"Jamaica Farewell" is a magnificent production

See This Play
Basil Waine Kong

Last night, my wife and I were in Atlanta and took the opportunity to attend the fabulous one woman show titled: "Jamaica Farewell" staring Debra Ehrhardt and Directed by Francis McGahy. It is funny, it's original, well rehearsed and went off without a hitch. I could readily relate to the story line about a Jamaican girl who dreams of escaping to America during the Turbulent Seventies. Through many daring and hilarious twists and turns (Jamaican style), she averts disaster and achieves her goal. For good belly laughs and inspiration mixed with a great deal of back-home inferences, you will want to make every effort to see this magnificent production. I absolutely loved it and I am sure you will as well. Ms. Ehrhardt deserves an Oscar. To learn about play dates, please go to: jamaicafarewelltheplay.com. Your soul will be enriched.

USAIN BOLT: Our Dancing Star

The performance of Jamaican athletes including the ones who represent other countries at the Berlin Track and Field World Championships was the greatest week in athletics since creation. How could a country with a population of less than three million people place second out of 200 countries in the world in gold medal standing ahead of China, India, Japan, Germany, Russia, England and all of South America. Never mind that during the same week, there were seven murders in Kingston. Let us hope this phenomenal demonstration of athletic prowess will trigger some magic to bring us together as a society. We should never doubt that we are a great people.

According to Prime Minister Golding:

“The performance of our athletes at the Berlin Games and the victories they have brought to our country almost on a daily basis confirm that this is country is destined for greatness. We are blessed, our people are blessed and we now need to translate this energy, this determination, discipline and drive into all spheres of our lives. The athletes have outdone themselves bringing with them a nation that is busting with pride and joy beyond words.”

The superlatives about Mr. Bolt in particular are endless. The world is seven billion years old and some 70 billion people have walked the face of the planet. Mr. Bolt is the fastest human being that has ever lived. Usain is truly the GOAT---the Greatest of All Time.” One of the media people said: “He must be from another planet”. “Yes, he is from planet Jamaica.”

I love the fact that Usain is an all–Jamaica man who takes care of business but still does not take himself too seriously. You certainly can shake your booty and shake the word at the same time. To hell with all the old time, British oriented emotional cripples who criticize him for his exuberance. This is not the Jamaican style! I find very little about the British worthy of emulation. Let us develop our own values, expressions and personalities. Let us define ourselves and leave the English to define themselves. Jamaicans enjoy spicy food, great music, and exuberance for life; the English have manners, hot water bottles and afraid to show us how they feel---a stiff upper lip and all that! That does not work for me. So, enjoy yourself Usain. Do not let anyone steal your joy. I love you just the way you are. Great human beings never lose their exuberance and great Jamaicans never lose teir zest for life.

One thing for sure, the Jamaican National Anthem has been indelibly written on the souls of people around the world. It was played so many times on the world stage that non-Jamaicans can now sing it by heart. They at least can sing boldly the last line: "Jamaica, Jamaica, Jamaica land we love!" We can all unabashedly bask in the glory of our athletic heroes. Can you imagine that Jamaica could win more medals that all the 200 countries of the world except the United States who came in just ahead of us because of the Jamaicans on the American team. In case you missed it: 7 gold, 4 Silver and 2 Bronze for a total of 13! The Mighty United States won 22.

Aleen Bailey, Usain Bolt, Veronica Campbell-Brown, Simone Facey, Shelley Ann Fraser, Michael Frater, Brigitte Foster Hilton, Delloreen Ennis-London, Shereefa Lloyd, Steve Mullens, Asafa Powell, Shericka Williams, Noviene Williams-Miles, Rosemarie Whyte, Kerron Stewart, Kalliese Spencer, and Malanie Walker are all Jamaican sports heroes.

Let us honour them! Let this be the beginning of a great transformation to end injustice, ignorance and poverty in our country.

Our Family Reunion

A Blessed Week with my Wife, Mother, all my children and their families
Basil Waine Kong

If you currently live in England, Canada or the United States and plan to retire back to Jamaica, this may serve as your “planning” guide. Just because you have decided to return to your birthplace, you should be acutely aware of how family obligations become a part of what must be considered. My four children and grandchildren live in Orlando, Florida, Portland, Oregon, Phoenix, Arizona and Atlanta. Weddings, funerals, graduation ceremonies, birthday parties, major holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, family reunions and other not to be missed family celebrations, should be anticipated. We schedule additional visits just because my wife and I want to spend quality time with the grand children. However, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

My wife and I celebrate our birthdays a week apart in July. It seemed like a good time to invite my 87 year old mother, my Aunt Madge, our four children and five grand children to spend a week together in Montego Bay.

The Columns Villa across from the Half Moon Hotel was absolutely the most ideal property for this initmate celebration. The Columns is a grand structure on five acres of land on a hillside overlooking the blue Caribbean. We saw the rising of the sun as well as bid farewell to it each evening in the midst of red, yellow and blue ribbons in the sky while our oldest granddaughter, Mackenzie and her brother Brooks serenaded us with violin concerts.

A huge bonus was the mango tree beside the swimming pool which delighted each grandchild and their Pop pop to no end as each had a never ending appetite for this sweet fruit from the gods. Like the story of the widow in the Bible whose oil supply increased with each act of kindness to her guests, each day everyone would eat mangoes to their heart’s content and each day I would replenish the basket with the fruit that had fallen during the night. During mango season, many households in Jamaica can turn their cooking pots upside down.

The family members ranged in age from 1 year to 87 years and were 16 strong. The cook at the Columns was feeding a football team every day and my wife swore we were going to eat and drink through an elephant in terms of tonnage.

On the first evening, we celebrated my wife’s birthday with a lovely dinner, cake and Champagne. The next day, we went by chartered bus to Woodlands District in St. Elizabeth where I grew up---my roots. I particularly wanted to show the grand children where I spent my childhood. We walked from house to house visiting people I know, visited the family graves and the Springfield Moravian church, where I worshiped. I particularly wanted the children to meet the children at Springfield All Age School where I attended but school was on summer recess. We barely survived the badly Neglected road from Moco to Woodlands.

Now, one of the purposes of going to “country" was also to buy meat, vegetables and fruits for the week. St. Elizabeth is not known to be the bread basket of Jamaica for nothing. We were offered a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables and because I love carrot juice, I bought 50 pounds and enjoyed them at every meal. Carrot juice with stout and condensed milk is absolutely the best tasting and most nutritious drink in the world.

All of my family made prior visits to Jamaica. However, one of the things we like to do is to visit Dunn’s River Falls and for some of my grandchildren, this represented the first time they could climb on their own. Because of the large crowd, the safe route up the falls was not accessible, so we had to take riskier routes and as a result, had a few cuts and bruises. It was certainly an exciting day at one of Jamaica’s most revered attractions.

We tried to go rafting down the Martha Ray but while the river experience may be wonderful, of all the tourist attractions in Jamaica, I will readily rank this as the worse run and most in-hospitable. We gave up out of frustration and made our way back to the Villa for good food, good libations and a swim by the pool.

The next day, we got passes to the Water Park at the Hilton in Montego Bay. They also have a wonderful beach. The grandchildren enjoyed the inner-tubing and my sons and sons–in-law really enjoyed the pool bar. We all enjoyed snacks at the beach and an afternoon siesta. Just another day in paradise.

The best beach in Jamaica is Doctor’s Cave. It is gorgeous! White sand, palm trees, lovely restaurants and clear blue water. My wife and I love this wonderful beach. We were able to snorkel with our oldest grandchild and there was no end to the wonderful sea life available right on the beach.

During the afternoon of the same day, some of us went to play golf at the Half Moon Course and waved at our family sitting by the pool at the Columns when we passed the fifth hole. They did not bring us lemonade as requested. You cannot get good help these days. As the sun was setting, the children enjoyed running down the fairways, rolling down the hills and just had a marvelous time with the open space at the golf course. Throughout the week, we were busy, busy, busy with conversation, singing, playing dominoes, bid whist, gin rummy and board games. Frolicking in the pool was, however, everyone's favorite thing to do. To the delight of my grand children, I jumped into the pool fully dressed durng the last night's festivities?

The staff at the Columns is headed up by Mrs. Bernard (Ms. B), is a superb cook and we sampled every conceivable Jamaican dish---curry goat and rice, escovitch fish, curried lobster, bamie and fried fish, brown stew chicken. With the complement of staff at the Villa, a very memorable time was had by all; in fact one grand child refused to leave the Villa and wanted to stay with his grandparents. There were so many first memories for all of us to cherish as the weeks and months go by, one grand daughter learned to swim, two found sympathetic and enthusiastic audiences for their nightly violin concerts. We all found love—love for Jamaica, love for each other and love for God and our eternal gratitude for our health, prosperity in challenging times and for providing the opportunity for all of us to spend this quality time together. WE are family and u is half of us!

On our final evening together, in addition to my birthday, Stephanie and I agreed to renew our marriage vows with family and friends as witnesses. With the grand children in tow, we made the wedding arch from Coconut bows and the abundant flowers on the property and a May-Pole for the children to enjoy. A local disk jockey provided the music for six hours of dancing and we rocked the night away. As the Villa is not close to any neighbors, there were no noise issues. Taurus Riley was our favorite artist as I serenaded my wife to “She is a Queen” and she danced for me with Beyonce and told me to “put a ring on it” and indeed I did!

This was my pledge to Stephanie:

"You are so captivating, so breath taking, so glorious, such an independent woman of substance, so passionate and so powerful, and that is just the way I like you. Your eyes, your form, your voice, your spirit, your soul and the life you live profoundly encapsulates the definition of what is beautiful with exciting possibilities and mysteries yet to be explored. You are a lovely queen whose presence delights my soul.

You are tender but also a beautiful determined warrior. And when you fight for us, we win. I stand in awe of you. I am amazed. Like a gorgeous Jamaican sunset, you bring beauty to the world. Your alluring charms invites, inspires, comforts and nourishes with the promise of the Heaven to come. You are a vast wonder to be enjoyed. I accept the invitation that your beauty extends. I want to enter, explore, partake and feast upon it. You are food for my soul.

I want to be worthy of your great love. You inspire me to be a better man and awaken my desire to be your hero.

We are building something grand and I need you desperately. You belong in my arms and on my arm. You will be forever precious to me, desired and wanted as my wife. Our lives are meant to be with each other. There is nothing that inspires me so much as you. Your beauty is so deep; it haunts and pierces me with longing when I am not with you. You are the source of my great joy today. I promise to love, honor and cherish you.

Beyond the blue horizon and the beautiful Jamaican sunset is a brilliant rainbow curling above signifying a great adventure and an even greater love story for us. As I renew my vows and take you again to be my lawful wedded wife, it is time to say good bye to hurt, pain and everything that was ever imperfect between us.

With this new ring, I hereby re-commit myself to be your lawfully wedded husband. I will love you, comfort you, honor and keep you in sickness and in health; forsaking all others and keep only to you from this day forward and for as long as we both shall live.“

My Letter to the Gleaner

PM's lame force majeure excuse(Published: Tuesday | August 4, 2009)

The Editor, Sir:

For Prime Minister Bruce Golding to assert force majeure as an excuse for our financial crisis, he must show that the JLP took reasonable steps to minimise this crisis.

Prime Minister Golding recently used 'force majeure' to explain that there was nothing he could have done to prevent our crime, unemployment, housing and particularly our economic crises. Is this a reasonable claim or an excuse for poor planning and even more importantly, poor performance?

Force majeure is a French term that that literally means "greater force". When this term is found in a contract, it excuses a party from liability if some unforeseen and overwhelming event beyond the control of that party is the cause for non-performance of the contract.

Typically, force majeure clauses cover natural disasters or other "acts of God", war, or the failure of third parties - such as suppliers and subcontractors - to perform their obligations to the contracting party. It is important to remember that force majeure clauses are intended to excuse a party only if the failure to perform could not have been avoided by the exercise of due care by that party.

The Golding administration is attempting to explain, excuse and free his government from fault, explaining that the extraordinary circumstances caused by the global financial meltdown just over-whelmed Jamaica and prevented our government from fulfilling its obligations.

What I think Golding is forgetting is that this clause cannot be invoked as an excuse for negligence, as his party could have reasonably avoided the degree to which the financial crisis has impacted Jamaica.

Before we were able to predict hurricanes, ships lost at sea could have invoked the force majeure excuse, but now if the Government does not warn seagoing vessels of an impending storm, or if the captain does not check the weather before taking passengers to sea, the predictable disaster could not be said to be an act of God. Clearly, our current weather forecasting technology should have predicted the impending disaster if procedural or reasonable preventive steps were followed.

In the old days my grandmother blamed a crop failure on the will of God. Now that we have so much more information about what will ensure a good harvest, a force majeure excuse cannot be invoked if the planter did not select the right crop, planted the right time of the year, watered the plants, fertilised and sprayed for insects and disease. It does not mean that we should pray any less but we should apply the knowledge that experience and science have provided - praying as if all depended on God, but planning, implementing and working as if all depended on us.

From my perspective, in order for government leaders to invoke a force majeure excuse, the citizens of Jamaica must judge whether the problem could have been helped or avoided. Did our government contribute to the crisis or was this crisis unavoidably caused by external forces? If the crisis was foreseeable, could the sitting government have taken reasonable steps to mitigate the crisis?

Running the government like a perpetual crisis machine leads to bad policy and public fatigue. Borrowing and spending our way out of debt is madness. We cannot solve our debt crises by more borrowing and spending recklessly like we drive. This will only lead to bankruptcy and the further ruination of our country.

In our hearts, each of us already knows this and no amount of wishing will make it go away. Common sense should tell us that rather than providing a better and brighter future for our children, we are saddling future generations with this humongous debt that will effectively enslave them to our creditors and place our country into economic servitude.

For Prime Minister Bruce Golding to assert force majeure as an excuse for our financial crisis, he must show that the JLP took reasonable steps to minimise this crisis. Was this foreseeable, and did the Government appropriately give us data so we could have mitigated our losses? This is like not exercising, living on a diet of patties, jerk pork and doughnuts and then claim force majeure when the inevitable heart attack strikes.

My sense is that our sitting government has no substantial plans in place to address our financial crises other than to borrow more funds to pay debts. If Mr Golding did not look both ways before he crossed the street, could he use a force majeure excuse when a truck runs him over?

I am, etc.,
BASIL WAINE KONG
Bwaine@bellsouth.net

Jamaicans, We are Everywhere

The Impact of Jamaicans on the world
Basil Waine Kong

I left Jamaica in 1959 when I was fifteen years old and returned after I retired on reaching my 65th birthday in 2008. During my lifetime, I have been fortunate to experience all the major cities of the United States as well as over 100 countries. Wherever I may roam, I can depend on two things: I will hear Bob Marley’s music and find Jamaicans making a positive contribution. The list is endless but would obviously include Will.I.Am, the creative genius of Black Eye Peas, the gentlman from Lauderhill, Florida (Joel Waul)who made the giant ball with rubber bands and sold it to Ripley's Believ It for Not for a large amountofmoney and th USA Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice. Last week-end was no exception.

I was in Orlando attending my Grandson’s (Kai) first birthday and as is my custom, I read the local newspaper. The Sunday Highlight was the story of an Attorney from Jamaica (Wayne Golding) who chairs the Bi-racial Committee for the Orange County Schools. He was pictured standing proudly in front of portraits of his two heroes, Marcus Garvey and Bob Marley. His committee is responsible for maintaining racial balance in the Orlando public schools and promoting racial harmony. He migrated to the United States 28 years ago, married and is the father of two children. You make me proud Mr. Golding.

I recall the story that during one of the Olympic Games, the Prime Minister of England and the Prime Minister of Canada were sitting together when the Canadian Prime Minister remarked that England won more medals only because there were more Jamaicans in England than in Canada. Jamaican men and women are the fastest human beings ever to walk (and run) on this earth and the most gifted overall.

We are a remarkable people. Never doubt that a small group of talented committed people from a little Island can change the world. The question remains whether a group of talented committed people can change Jamaica. We know many of you living foreign are doing great things but what are you doing for Jamaica and what is Jamaica doing to promote your return. If Jamaica is to overcome poverty, crime and educational and health care disparities, we must shed the “old” Colonial mentality and embrace the power of ingenuity and invest wisely in our future. Your home country could use some help in this, our hour of need. Leaders in Jamaica could also use a healthy dose of humility in accepting your talents. Come no man. Put your hands and shoulders to the wheel for Jamaica! We cannot just complain about the current government without a brain trust to replace those who continue to promote old ways of thinking that prevents true progress.

I have always been impressed that Japan has no natural resources, (no oil, gold, silver, bauxite, diamonds, wood, steel,etc). They are the third leading economy in the world because they buy natural resources from other countries, add value and sell it back to the world at a mark up. This is people power! They buy steel, build cars and sell them back on the world market at a tremendous mark-up. Are they smarter than Jamaicans? Absolutely not. We just sell our most talented and gifted people to the world cheap.

We need more people to be part of the solution and fewer to be part of the problem.

Land Reform in Jamaica

Can Jamaica become a major food exporter?
Basil Waine Kong, Ph.D., JD

If Jamaica is to ever to achieve prosperity, security, freedom from dependence on foreign aid and dominance from abroad, we must seize the opportunity to forge a strategy for ourselves and for future generations where the rule of civil law, not the rule of the jungle governs the conduct of our people. To this end, it is our duty to try novel social and economic experiments that allow Jamaicans to reap economic benefit from the sweat of their labour. One such “experiment” may be to bring our agrarian expertise into full swing by promoting the growth of exportable agricultural products to the world.

An abundance of vacant, fallow land is available in Jamaica and can be used to plant exportable crops and to decrease the amount of food that we buy from other countries. This precedence effectively addresses many of our social and economic ills. The planting and reaping of profitable harvests by putting more land into production with available workforce will decrease the number of Jamaican citizens who are idle in our cities. My grandmother was fund of saying: “Idle hands become the work of the Devil.” This is borne out in the high crime rate that plagues us.

It is in the best interest of Jamaica to implement significant land reform for the purpose of increasing food production and reducing poverty. The purpose of a proposed land reform should be to bring about a more equitable distribution of land ownership and access to land. This can be brought about by changes in laws and regulations as a scheme to increase the acreage under cultivation, increase output, meet the growing shortage of food worldwide and at the same time reduce poverty and crime in Jamaica? A land of abundant rainfall, sunshine, fertile soil, expert cultivators, access to huge markets and relatively cheap labor is ripe for a guided agricultural revolution. I was impressed that as a boy we could just stick a limb from a tree into the ground and it would grow into another tree.

The contrast between rich and poor in Jamaica arises mainly from the mal-distribution of land ownership and the lack of access to land by poor Jamaicans. As a result, many Jamaicans do not have access to land that would promote self employment. So, both land and an able bodied labour force are idle, kept apart by outdated laws, customs and bad tax policy. The land certainly should be taxed (site value rating) but not the improvements made to the land and the products reaped from the land for the 1st year of usage. We need to take the incentive out of keeping land out of production and create a graduated taxation or tariff on production after the immediate needs of the farmer have been considered.

Due to extremely low real estate taxes coupled with the increasing value of land, it is currently profitable for entrepreneurs to buy land, take it out of production, pay very little taxes, and eventually resell the land at a significant gain. Baring capturing the land, current landowners have little incentive to either develop their property or make it available for agricultural production or industrial development. On the other hand, potential farmers do not have access to arable land for cultivation. In their desperation and frustration, many of them move to urban areas, survive under deplorable circumstances or turn to crime to subsidize their livelihoods.
The goals of the proposed program are to:

1. Increase the acreage of land that is used for food productions.
2. Increase the number of Jamaicans willing to be farmers.
3. Provide subsidies to cultivators for seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and farming equipment.
4. Increase food production (Eat what we grow, grow what we eat) and provide an avenue for market access to farmers to sell their produce.
5. Increase food exports (a government body would guarantee the prices of various food items and prepare and package them for export).
6. Promote the production of canning and packaging plants.
7. Reduce unemployment and promote self employment through farming and provide jobs in the packaging sector.
8. Increase home ownership of the land that is used for farming.
9. Reduce crime by employing young men and women who are now idle in the urban areas.
10. Increase the quality of life for unemployed Jamaican workers through employment and financial empowerment.
11. Increase taxes after subsidizing these farmers for three years.

Further, I recommend that we examine existing laws, regulations and customs relating to land ownership and land tenure. Preventive legislation needs to be removed and new incentive based legislation introduced to:
1. Increase taxes on land that is not being used to incentivize landowners to at least rent the land so it can be productive.
2. Take land where taxes are more than three years in arrears.
3. Relocate unemployed citizens from urban ghettos by reallocating them to land that is laying waste and providing adequate housing to incentivize unemployed citizens to relocate; (Food for the Poor has demonstrated that adequate housing can be built on 10 acres of land for less than J$500,000 per unit. How much does it cost to keep a man in prison?)
4. Adjust Real Estate taxes so that existing homesteads are not adversely affected;
5. Monitor recipients of these land grants to make sure these opportunities are not squandered.
6. Favor married couples.

We have before us the opportunity to forge prosperity for ourselves and for future generations of Jamaicans. A key strategy on our war on poverty is to help individuals to own something and have an investment in a lawful society so they will have an investment in protecting the property and interests of their fellow citizens. The true test of our compassion is in the way that we care for our most vulnerable citizens. We can have a true democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we cannot have both. The same law for the lion and the lamb is oppression. In order to treat some people equally, we must treat them differently. This is not a gift or a hand-out; it is an investment in our citizens.

To this end, I recommend that our government form a task force to explore the merits of this proposal immediately. The more we are able to put forth realistic ideas, the more of a chance we have for a true reformation and referendum of the current economic policies that is failing our country and our people. In the words of Franklin Roosevelt: "I see on-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished...The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."

This land is our land. Let's put it into production! While I believe that property rights must be carefully safeguarded, I also believe that poverty anywhere is a threat to prosperity everywhere.