Looking out

Lots of things have caught my attention this week, I'll start with the most recent:

• The news coming out of Myanmar this week touched me more deeply when I realized that the junta took over there the same year that Jamaica gained Independence. Stop and think about that for a second, if you're a Jamaican really think. That means that as we've struggled to build our country and our government these past years rebuilding after hurricanes, having elections, dealing with violence, making mistakes and restructuring after financial crises — half the world away another country has been living under military rule. According to a CNN.com article Myanmar has been cut off from the Internet. I can't imagine that happening in Jamaica today, at all. I mean look what happened when the government tried to throw on that 30% gas tax back in '99? We hear about limits on Internet access that exist in China, but when you couple this with the various reports of human rights violations with monks it makes you realize just how polarized rights and freedoms are across the world. I wonder if the demonstrators in Jena, La. thought about that?

• Actually, the town that I live in now is being portrayed as Jena II by some of the folks down in south Fla. The trial of the eight boot camp instructors and one nurse charged with criminal culpability in the death of Martin Lee Anderson starts this coming Wednesday. I already saw a Court TV broadcast truck when I drove past the Juvenile Justice court house on my way home yesterday. I don't even know where to start explaining what the case is about, but what disturbs me the most is the state governor's involvement and how he appears to have come down in favor of one medical examiner's autopsy over another's, to the point of discrediting the first. The first autopsy found that Anderson died from sickle cell trait complications, the second that he suffocated from being forced to inhale ammonia. Now the first examiner is being railroaded by the state (IMHO) even though other pathologists have come out saying that the second ME's cause of death has never happened before. I guess I'm shocked because this is supposed to be the country where things like this don't happen. It's supposed to be truth and justice, impartial and fair. But as we Jamaicans say: see me and come live with me a two different things.

• Lastly, congrats to my best friend and her husband on the birth of baby Matther and to my neighbors on the birth of baby Brycie. Now I can see why women catch "baby fever" — babies are cute! But at the same time, I don't miss the endless diaper changes and wee-hours-of-the-mornings feedings. Check me back when they start walking! :-)