From UNESCO The long and difficult road to school for girls

UNESCO has commissioned or endorsed a photo exhibition highlighting the difficulties and obstacles girls around the world encounter when trying to gain access to education.  I saw this today and it made me pause to think of how easy it has been for me access a full education from elementary to tertiary. This is a blessing in my life and it is something that I have not always been consciously thankful for having received. So watch and discuss.  

Photo exhibition illustrating the difficulties that girls face all around the world to access education. On the occasion of the signature of the UNESCO Global Partnership for Girls' and Women's Education, 26 May 2011: "Better Life, Better Future" - muet projection

Also remember to volunteer. We all have something to offer. If scheduling the time is a major deterrent, and you cannot commit to visiting and working in an actual space remember that you can become a United Nations Online Volunteer UNV. For further information visit the UNV website     

Young Professionals Network Of Jamaica

The Young Professionals of Jamaica Network is a network of that provides opportunities to like-minded individuals to meet each other and to engage with politicians, academics, people who work in NGOs and influential members of the business community.   


The network brings together professionals aged 21 to 45 with a passion for nation building. 

Today May 18 the YPNJ will launch a Skills Consortium that will  comprise a cadre of skilled and experienced professionals, such as marketers, graphic designers, researchers, project-management specialists, writers, accountants, paralegals, and proposal writers, who will be available for employment on a part-time, short term or project basis.

The launch will be at 6 this evening at the Council of Voluntary Social Services Building, 2D Camp Road. 
For further information see the YPNJ Facebook Page 

Ward Threatre to be retored to her former glory

The Jamaica Observer newspaper is reporting the Ward Theatre is to receive much needed restoration in time for its 2012 centenary. The restoration is said to be budgeted at US $ 6.2 million. 


For further information see the Jamaica Observer

The Ward Theatre, North Parade, Kingston.

Desmond Tutu ‘God is not a Christian’

 I saw this interesting piece on New African Magazine homepage and decided to share it with you. I am in complete agreement with his sentiments. Christianity is a fairly new religious and life philosophy while the presence of and the belief in a Supreme Element (of whatever name, shape, size, colour or race) has been intrinsic in human civilization and cosmic realities. So I invite you to read the excerpt below and then discuss. Is God a Christian?

New African Magazine Homepage
“God is clearly not a Christian. His concern is for all his children. To claim God exclusively for Christians is to make God too small and in a real sense is blasphemous. God is bigger than Christians and cares for more than Christians only,” writes Archbishop Desmond Tutu in his new book, God Is Not A Christian, a collection of some of his speeches, sermons, lectures, letters, and exchanges from the past three decades. Below is an excerpt from the book.

Most Christians believe that they get their mandate for exclusivist claims from the Bible. Jesus does say that no one can come to the Father except through him, and in Acts we hear it proclaimed that there is no other name under heaven that is given for salvation (John 14:6; Acts 4:12). Those passages seem to be categorical enough to make all debate superfluous. But is this all that the Bible says, with nothing, as it were, on the side of inclusiveness and universality, and does the exclusivist case seem reasonable in the light of human history and development? 

The Most Reverend Doctor Desmond Mpilo Tutu (born 7 October 1931) is a South African activist and Christian cleric who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid. He was the first black South African Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town., South Africa, and primate of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa (now the Anglican Church of Southern Africa).

Archbishop Tutu has been active in the defense of human rights and uses his high profile to campaign for the oppressed. He has campaigned to fight AIDS, tuberculosis,  homophobia, transphobia, poverty and racism. Tutu received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism in 1986, the Ghandi Peace Prize in 2005, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. Tutu has also compiled several books of his speeches and sayings.