Ebola virus disease

 
Since recently countries have been taking the necessary precautions to disallow people with the virus or persons traveling from parts of Africa from entering their territory. This virus has been around since the 70's but recently has started to spread throughout the Africa Region. The current outbreak in west Africa, (first cases notified in March 2014), is the largest and most complex Ebola outbreak since the Ebola virus was first discovered in 1976. There have been more cases and deaths in this outbreak than all others combined. It has also spread between countries starting in Guinea then spreading across land borders to Sierra Leone and Liberia, by air (1 traveller only) to Nigeria, and by land (1 traveller) to Senegal.

Here are some Facts about the Ebola Virus

• Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is a severe, often fatal illness in humans.
• The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission.
• The average EVD case fatality rate is around 50%. Case fatality rates have varied from 25% to 90% in past outbreaks.
• The first EVD outbreaks occurred in remote villages in Central Africa, near tropical rainforests, but the most recent outbreak in west Africa has involved major urban as well as rural areas.
• Community engagement is key to successfully controlling outbreaks. Good outbreak control relies on applying a package of interventions, namely case management, surveillance and contact tracing, a good laboratory service, safe burials and social mobilisation.
• Early supportive care with rehydration, symptomatic treatment improves survival. There is as yet no licensed treatment proven to neutralise the virus but a range of blood, immunological and drug therapies are under development.
• There are currently no licensed Ebola vaccines but 2 potential candidates are undergoing evaluation.

Jamaicans For Justice

Jamaicans For Justice- A True Patriotic Organization Despite Its Images.
By Winston Donald
In an interview with Kay Osbourne, Executive Director of Jamaicans For Justice, she recognized that two images of her organization pronounced in the Jamaican space are anti-police and hegemony by white and brown-skinned wealthy or /and middle class Jamaicans. I must say her response was a lucid and brilliantly answered.
Her recognition of these  two  prominent images are certainly legitimate and profound. As one who have worked in services organization demanding a significant relationship with all classes of persons , I must say that most policemen who I know either as friends, acquaintances or customers see and believe the JFJ as anti –police. But this is whee I differ from these cops or security officers who I know.
The abuse of police of working class people , the volume of extra judicial killings are no fable or myths. I myself have from high  school days experienced police abuse. In fact coming from a Wolmer’s graduation in the late 70’s , the driver of a brand new Subaru who gave us a ride on those then lonely roads to Edgewater was nearly riddled with bullets by police who insist the Young Salesman from T Geddes Grant was driving a stolen vehicle. It was only a miracle that saved us that night as we would have experienced death and ask questions after.
I myself having gone to a dance in a Portmore Community was detained and taken to No Man’s land , Bay Farm Road , an alien political turf to the one I was visiting , only because the police on supporting the then potential winner of the 1980 General election  falsely accused the dance revelers as supporters of the PNP.   I also as one who is from the bosoms of the people have known of persons gun down by the police and whose death were said to be as a result of a police shoot out. Of course I could go on to state incidents , but as Jamaicans say , “a nuh everything mouth mek fi say.”
For years police brutality and murders was a common strand in the culture of marginalized and working class citizens . It was therefore timely that conscious Jamaicans despite their class background sought to stand up for the rights and justice of those in the society who did not have the power derived from falling in the middle class or lighter hues.
 So here comes the JFJ and our history especially that since the 1830’s that it is not our black Jamaicans who are at the mainstream of justice. Back track to our history and all Jamaicans know of the effort of George William Gordon,  Missionaries Thomas  James Philipo, Thomas Burchell,  Thomas Clarkson and in our recent history  Hugh Hart, Norman Manley, Edward Seaga, Michael Manley  fighting on behalf of the poor. The skin pigment of later days fighters should not be an issue although we really acknowledged it is legitimately a touchy issue.
Personally, I believe the lighter Jamaicans are empowered with education and income and having these powerful tools find it easier to lead than many of us deprived by  colonialisation and post colonialisation. Therefore, if in their conscious and having certain power relations, then nothing is wrong to dialogue and work on behalf of the majority of us who are at the bottom of the social ladder abused by the state security machinery which devolve itself of protection and secure.
It is time however for Jamaicans for Justice ,inspite of the tremendous work on behalf of those suffereing at the hands of the police, to correct the image of class hegemony in its leadership. 
It does not matter how great your organization is, how great the work you have done, how much you have assisted your unfortunate neighbor if bad or perceived  negative images are perceived , then it will not augur well for your history. And , one cannot blame the masses for perception as perception is not abstract there is always meaning made from perceptions. In other words it is  like examining what makes or define culture.

BULLYING AND PHYSICAL ABUSE

BULLYING AND PHYSICAL ABUSE – THE TREND AT CLARKSON-VILLE ALL AGE IN THE 1970’S
By Winston Donald
The last two years had me reflecting on life at elementary school in St. Ann, the values and socialization and what affected or impacted our academic performance. By delving into the past and sharing the discussion for many of us who attended Clarkson-ville All Age School in the 1970’s , a constant concern and conversation pertaining to that era-   was the trauma and fear experienced by those inflicting pains and abuse. I now want all those were responsible to apologize , to apologize for  being the young Hitler they were and  the physical abuse to their fellow classmates and students. I was shocked during the conversations that so many of us had these experiences.
Students at Clarkson-ville were  severely bullied by a core group of tough bullies and physically abused by the Principal Mr. Guy Lemonious and his wife Mrs. Lemonious  under the guise of discipline.
First the bullies were the same for nearly all of us of the early seventies: Brenton Campbell, his brother Len, Brenton’s cousin John , Junior Edwards, Enos Ingram,  and Coaxie Barrett (Miss Hearty Barrett’s son). Fear and trepidation was apart of us encountering these six  youths.  The bullies were from homes where parents  disregard or  pretended their sons were incapable of  hatching injury on  their peers  had a field day for several inflicting pain and creating psychological mayhem  on  others. Their parents also were the set who denied their sons were doing wrong to their class cohorts. In fact reporting these delinquents to their parents meant nothing. The girls also had their bullies, normally girls from homes in Cedar Valley but for this article , the concentration is on the abuse to the males at CAAS.
Wherever these men are , (and most if not all are resident in the UK and the USA, ) they must now  own up to their misdeeds and anti-social behavior  and wholeheartedly apologize to those they had hurt, particulary  those who were in class with them between the years of 1969 to 1973.  The Clarksonville All Age  bullies acted disgustingly without regard  to the physical and emotional welfare of their fellowmen. They had selfish and evil motive which precipated  their  action in beating up on others slapping and their delight  for repeatedly slapping the heads of those of us whose parents had given us a low cut or “bald head” at the favourite barbers of the day Messrs: Newton Barrett, Headley Waugh and David Easington. Those who received their hair cuts from Waugh were in worst position for the bullying as Waugh’s shears and razors took the trim to the scalp. This made us more susceptible to bullies like Junior Edwards, Coaxie Barrett, Enos Ingram and Brenton Campbell. When  other bullies took a break from inflicting injury, those mentioned would ensure students experienced a marathon of slapping from the hands.
Yes many of us complained to our parents while others like Oh My God, Jackie (Millford ) greaves was shocked to even report it to his beloved mother Miss Icy. Personally, on telling my grandma who seek audience with their parents , it was t no avail. The next month would be a repeat of the abuse. The bullies parents imparted no value of respect for others. One parent in particular, Mum Williams  would deny her son was a rotten egg.  Strangely the bullies were pathetic academic performers, some were what we refer to as “dunce”. The only consolation is when it was class exams and they know they had to copy from your books , then you discovered they become “comfy” to steal your answers, in fact, some openly begged you to show them the answer and promised not to harm you in the future.
Interestingly, very few bullies lasted to Grade 9. At the end of Grade 8, Barett, Campbell and Ingram had to go. They had spent their energies slapping and beating their peers  so much that their school work suffered severely. Both numeracy and reading skills were inadequate for promotion to Grade 9. This was coupled up with many of them reaching 15 years old , even at Grade 7.
Lemonious  abd his wife in his role as Maximum Principal and Maximum Vice Principal  envisaged  learning outcome and discipline as  a function of the amount of  “licks” administered to students. The couple invented the ideal mathematical function for beatings and Common Entrance result , which alarmingly was pathetic as no more than 2 students passed per year. To the Lemonious’s  physical abuse was the template for teaching success. Their entire non charismatic persona  was built on drilling for  educational output  with  the canes and  famous broad  belt as the tools of  motivation. To the  Lemonious’s  every wrong answer was welcomed with a caning and every misunderstanding a piece of “beating on  your backside.” Strangely, Lemonious was not prompt  or predisposed  towards  caning his mischievious  and  rotten behaving children Steve or Rollie.
Lemonious should answer to many of those children who he both  scarred  and scared. I personally am convinced wherever in Manchester he resides , he should find himself at some appropriate  venue, perhaps, the good ole Baptist Church to answer to his coarse pschye in denying many  from learning and from attending “Scholarship class” as a result of his physical abuse. I personally say, Lemonious , time for you to apologise not only to yesterday’s  abused youths but to their parents and grandparents, dead and alive!!!  In this regard , I shall be calling upon the Moravian Church which he serves to get a hearing from him. Just last year I nearly send him a list of names of students who are “vexed” to this day by the scores of caning he administered to poor village boys and girls also. What would cause a Principal to cane a young female student until she passed her urine? What would cause a Principal and his wife to beat a student by inflicting a dozen or more strokes of the cane? Do you call such physical beating discipline? Only the most backward society would tolerate getting 15 cane strokes as the norm.
We hope that todays’  students at Clarksonville All Age are not acquainted with what we had to undergo four decades ago  or to face the degree of bullying  and physical beatings by peers, teachers or educational stakeholders. Thank God we had strong Christian parents, otherwise we might have been psychologically scarred to this day.
Caning can never correct the ability to learn, rather understanding, care, commitment and diverse methods of teaching are the panacea for  learning by those who are slow, who are late starters or simply ignorant to the method of instruction.
If there is anyone who can challenge this article ,  let he or she does so and do so with strong , accurate and factual rebuttal.

Easter

What is Easter and what does it mean to you?
 
Easter Season

In Western Christianity, Easter marks the end of Lent, a 40-day period of fasting, repentance, moderation and spiritual discipline in preparation for Easter. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Easter Sunday. Eastern Orthodox churches observe Lent or Great Lent, during the 6 weeks or 40 days preceding Palm Sunday with fasting continuing during the Holy Week of Easter. Lent for Eastern Orthodox churches begins on Monday and Ash Wednesday is not observed.
Because of Easter's pagan origins, and also because of the commercialization of Easter, many Christian churches choose to refer to the holiday as Resurrection Day.

On Easter Sunday, Christians celebrate the resurrection of the Lord, Jesus Christ. It is typically the most well-attended Sunday service of the year for Christian churches.
Christians believe, according to Scripture, that Jesus came back to life, or was raised from the dead, three days after his death on the cross. As part of the Easter season, the death of Jesus Christ by crucifixion is commemorated on Good Friday, always the Friday just before Easter. Through his death, burial, and resurrection, Jesus paid the penalty for sin, thus purchasing for all who believe in him, eternal life in Christ Jesus.

Easter in the Bible

The biblical account of Jesus' death on the cross, or crucifixion, his burial and his resurrection, or raising from the dead, can be found in the following passages of Scripture: Matthew 27:27-28:8; Mark 15:16-16:19; Luke 23:26-24:35; and John 19:16-20:30.

Paul Walker's brothers help finish 'Fast & Furious 7' action scenes

 

Fast & Furious 7 one of the most anticipated films since the late Paul Walker has began putting things in place to get it completed. This was published on the CNN website - Paul Walker's brothers are helping "fill in small gaps" in "Fast & Furious 7" action sequences not finished before the actor's death, producers said Tuesday. Walker died in a fiery car crash during a Thanksgiving break in filming last November, forcing a halt to production.

"We had to take time to grieve Paul, the brother we love and lost, and to figure out if we should move on with our film," producers wrote to fans in a Facebook post Tuesday.

The decision to resume filming was "the only choice," the note said. We believe our fans want that, and we believe Paul would want that, too."

Walker's dramatic scenes were completed before his death but some action sequences were unfinished, they said.

"We have resumed shooting and now welcome Paul's brothers, Caleb and Cody, into our 'Fast' family," the post said. "Caleb and Cody are helping us complete some remaining action for their brother and fill in small gaps left in production. Having them on set has made us all feel that Paul is with us, too."

The movie was to have been released this summer, but Universal pushed it back to April 10, 2015.

Who is God?

 
I found this article online from godandscience.org and i find it very interesting so i decided to share it.
Many religions describe a being referred to as "God." Some of these religions describe the being God as one of many other gods created by more powerful gods or councils of gods. However, for the purpose of this paper, we are going to use the definition of God contained in the Bible. As such, God is the Spirit hovering over the waters of the primordial Earth—Creator of the universe (matter, energy, space, and time), along with other principalities and beings whose primary existence is outside this universe. However, God did not just create the universe and leave it to its own fate as deists proclaim. God is the personal being who walked and talked with Adam and Eve, the first human beings, in the garden of Eden. God is also Savior of mankind, coming to Earth in the person of Jesus of Nazareth to provide the ultimate example of holiness and the ultimate sacrifice for humanity's evilness, in order to restore our personal relationship with Him.

WHO IS GOD?

According to Christianity, God is the self-existent One, having no need of being created, since He has existed forever and is the cause of all things, including the dimension of time, to which He is not subject. Likewise, God is not subject to the physical creation, but is spiritual in nature, residing in the spiritual dimensions of heaven. God's power over the physical creation is absolute, such that He can manipulate matter, energy, space, and time at will. For this reason, God is said to be all powerful—able to accomplish any possible task He wills to do. Along with being all powerful, God is also all knowing—having knowledge of all things that are possible to be known, including the entire history of the universe—past, present, and future. Because God is all powerful (omnipotent) and all knowing (omniscient), He is also able to be present at all places at all times (omnipresent). God is also all loving—according to the Bible, "God is love" (1 John 4:16). The love of God prompted Him to create human beings in His image, in order to share His love with us. The Christian scriptures say that we can fulfill the entire law of God by loving Him and loving our fellow human beings (Matthew 22:37-40). God is absolutely holy—without any moral or character defect. In fact, the Bible says that God is incapable of doing any evil, despite being all powerful. God is unchangeable. In other words, He does not change any of His attributes or character at any time. Despite humanity's tendency to change its definition of morality, God's moral character does not evolve with the times, but remains constant.

WHERE IS GOD?
The Bible says that God cannot be contained within the universe (1 Kings 8:27). In addition, the Bible says that God fills both heaven and earth (Jeremiah 23:24), which is a Hebrew idiom to describe the entire universe. So, God is both transcendent and immanent simultaneously. God's normal abode is in heaven, which is not located within the physical universe. According to the Bible heaven seems to operate under different physical laws, with the laws of thermodynamics seeming to be absent. So, the question "Where is God?" is not one that can be answered with the knowledge we posses.


WHAT DOES GOD LOOK LIKE?
Since human beings are created in the image of God, most artist's renditions picture God as looking like a human male. Although the Bible uses the personal pronoun "He" to describe God, it never says God looks like a human male. Word pictures describing God usually use words such as "like" or "as" in their descriptions. So, we find that both males and females were created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), although God is not a hermaphrodite. Likewise, there are descriptions of God that describe Him with wings and feathers (Psalm 91:2-4), although nobody would suggest that God is an overgrown chicken. In fact, the Bible says God is a spirit (John 4:24)—without physical form (i.e., not composed of ordinary matter). Although God's primary nature is spiritual, He is able to take on physical form in order to interact with human beings on Earth. In fact, the Bible says that God took on human form, coming to earth as Jesus of Nazareth. The Bible says that believers who die will go to heaven and "see Him just as He is" (1 John 3:2), because they will be like Him, possessing "spiritual bodies" (1 Corinthians 15:44). So, there is no way to know what God actually looks like in heaven, until we actually get there


WHAT DOES GOD WANT FROM US
If God created the entire universe as a place to accommodate human beings, He must have had some sort of plan in mind. The Bible says God wants as many people as possible to choose to love Him and spend eternity with Him. Since God's standard for behavior is perfection in thought and deed, we are going to find it very difficult to meet God's standard on our own. However, since God loves us so much, He has provided another means by which we can attain perfection. Jesus, as God, took on the form of a human being and lived on the earth in the first century (Philippians 2:5-8). Besides teaching, His main purpose was to provide the ultimate sacrifice for sins (bad things we do), by living a completely sinless life (Hebrews 4:15), dying on a cross (Colossians 1:19-20), and rising from the dead (Romans 6:9-10). It is through belief in Jesus and His sacrifice for sins that one is declared righteous and free from sin. One who believes in Jesus follows Him, being indwelt by the Holy Spirit, who guides Christians as they become conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29). So, those who believe in Jesus are declared righteous and will spend eternity with Him in heaven.

God is the ultimate Being in existence, perfect in power, love, and character. Since God wanted to share His love with others, He created the angels and human beings—spiritual creatures who can related to Him. Because God is love, He wants us to love Him and love other people (Matthew 22:37-40). God came to earth in human form as Jesus of Nazareth to teach us about Himself and to provide the ultimate sacrifice for our sins, so that those who believe can have fellowship with Him. The Bible encourages all people to turn from their selfishness to become lovers of God, to fulfill God's perfect law of love

What Happens When You Die?

People always want to know what happens when someone die but there's only one group of people who really know what happens when you die: the dead. And since the dead won't be revealing their secrets anytime soon, it's up to scientists to explain what happens when a person dies.
Death, just like life, is a process, scientists say. The first stage of this process is known as clinical death. It lasts from four to six minutes, beginning when a person stops breathing and the heart stops pumping blood. During this time, there may be enough oxygen in the brain that no permanent brain damage occurs. Other organs, such as the kidneys and eyes, also remain alive throughout clinical death.
In the second stage of dying, known as biological death, the cells of the body begin to degenerate, and the body's organs — including the brain — shut down. Doctors are sometimes able to stall biological death by inducing hypothermia — cooling the body to below its normal temperature. This method can stop the degeneration of cells and has been used to revive cardiac-arrest patients. These stages of death are well understood, but what remains elusive is what happens to a person once he or she is both clinically and biologically dead. To get some insight into this mystery, researchers turn to the study of near-death experiences (NDEs). According to the Out-Of-Body Experience Research Center in Los Angeles, more than 8 million Americans have reported NDEs, which occur when a person is either clinically dead, near dead or in a situation where death is likely or expected. Many people who have had near-death experiences report similar sensations: feeling as though they were floating outside of their bodies, moving rapidly through a tunnel toward light or seeing deceased loved ones. Researchers continually study NDEs in an effort to make sense of the biological and neurological processes that may be behind such events. Some studies claim that NDEs are just another form of lucid dreaming, while others link these experiences to oxygen deprivation in the brain.