January 1, 2012
Dear Aunty:
Happy New Year! I predict that 2012 will be a year to remember for Jamaicans at home and abroad. Between the Olympics, The US Election, the End of the World according to the Mayan Calendar, and the 50th Anniversary of the Independence of Jamaica and Trinidad, we will have more than enough on our plate. Last independence, I told you to my 50th Birthday wish list for Jamaica… and despite the fact that only 215 days remain in the countdown…I still believe we can pull off some miracles. Because the fact that Sister P horse run off with the Cash Pot is a miracle indeed. We in the Diaspora were in general on tenterhooks about which way it would go. Some of the diehards travelled home to vote, while others like me remained firmly on the bench praying above all for a free and fair and violence absent election. Well God answers prayers because the calm and quiet of December 29, 2011 will certainly go down in history. The high drama has played out and now that the election is over and the people have spoken about the need to balance people’s lives as well as the Bank book, I really hope that we can get down to the business of commemorating the 50th in a really special way, I am praying we can go beyond events to using the occasion to plant the seeds for a transformational shift in the process of Jamaica’s development with the partnership and participation of the Jamaican diaspora. Not one of the fifty things on my list is impossible. All it takes it will!
Take NUMBER 2 on my birthday wish list — 5,000 Diaspora Mentors for 5,000 Student Mentees –. let’s call it for short – ‘The Mentors Project’ that is an easy-easy-easy sell off. All it would take is an organization like the Jamaica Council of Churches to set up a relationship with all the Jamaican-dominated churches in the US, Canada and UK which I guesstimate at a minimum of 100 … and ask them to nominate fifty people each to be mentors. Likewise 100 churches in Jamaica would nominate 50 youth to be mentees. The mechanics, rules and regulations of the mentorship program to be worked out will ensure a win-win for youth mentees and mentors alike and all participants would be asked to commit for one year. Planning, development and registration would be effected between now and through the period of Lent. On Easter Sunday – the program would be launched, consecrated and plans put in place in all participating Churches with partners linked by Skype or other such media. The project would culminate in a convocation on Easter Sunday 2013 in Jamaica. Can such a wish come true? Will the Jamaica Council of Churches and some church leaders in Jamaica at home and abroad help make my birthday wish come true? Would you like to help make my wish come true?
Fifty Wishes in 366 days!
Walk good,
Cousin
