Jamaica Increasing Funding For HIV/AIDS Programmes

Minister of Health, Hon. Dr. Fenton Ferguson (centre) greets Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, Dr. Denzil Douglas (left) prior to the start of a Global Fund press briefing at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston on April 9. Also sharing in the moment is Executive Director, Global Fund, Mark Dybul. The Global Fund provides support for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria projects around the world. It is an international financing institution that supports countries in their fight against three of the world’s most devastating diseases.

Minister of Health, Hon. Dr. Fenton Ferguson says while funding support from international agencies is crucial in combating HIV/AIDS, the country is taking gradual ownership of specific programmes related to the disease.

The Health Minister was responding to questions during a Global Fund press briefing at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston on Wednesday, April 9.

“In spite of the difficulty, we are moving from a position of 80 per cent external funding where we are now at about 46 per cent (local funding) in support of the HIV/AIDS programme, and so while we have gotten what we could consider transitional funding that will be specific for the high risk groups, Jamaica has demonstrated, in relation to the antiretroviral drugs, that we are taking gradual ownership in that regard,” he said.

Through the Global Fund, a total of US$16 billion has been allocated for disbursement to small, developing states, like Jamaica, to fight debilitating diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.

The sum is being provided under the Fund’s revised financing model for 2014 to 2016, and is available for distribution to eligible nation states, with each country having a specific allotment, depending on its national income level and disease burden.

The sum is 20 per cent higher than the amount disbursed by the Global Fund over the previous period.

Under the revised plan, Jamaica is eligible for US$19 million draw down over the next two years, to tackle the diseases.

Jamaica was originally slated to receive US$11 million from the Fund but following further discussions, the allocation was increased.

Dr. Ferguson noted that the funding will be used to facilitate the needs of the most at-risk groups.

The Minister also noted that despite the reclassification of Jamaica and other Caribbean states as ‘upper middle income’ countries, which has affected their ability to access funding from international agencies, other factors need to be taken into consideration when determining funding support.

“Even as we look at country classification, it is important also to take into account health indicators in the country, the debt to GDP ratio in the countries, so that in the final analysis we would be able to get a real appreciation as to a country’s ability to fund not just HIV but to carry forward the overall national health agenda,” he said.

He said the country continues to tackle HIV/AIDS, which is as much a public health matter as it is a developmental issue.

“Any phenomenon relative to the disease process that has a profound effect on public health, robs a society of productive capacity. This is in relation to productive capacity, which will ultimately affect development, therefore we continue to make the point that health issues are developmental issues and we will continue to press this agenda,” he said.

Executive Director of the Global Fund, Mark Dybul, said Jamaica has had tremendous success in combating HIV.

He also noted that reduction rates regarding mother to child transmission “are very close to what are seen in the United States and Europe,” adding that this success is mirrored throughout the region.

He added that significant declines have also been seen in tuberculosis and that the region is on a path towards eliminating malaria.

The Global Fund provides financial support for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria projects around the world. It is an international financing institution that supports countries in their fight against three of the world’s most devastating diseases.

Created in 2002, the Global Fund is a unique partnership between governments, civil society, the private sector, and affected communities. The Fund channels approximately US$3 billion a year to health professionals to treat and prevent AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria in their countries.

It does not implement or manage programmes, relying instead on local experts to select and administer the programmes that save the most lives.

Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society continues its “HIV is a gay disease” campaign with more deception added

After listening an interview on Power 106FM’s Justice show with host Marlene Malahoo Forte former resident magistrate, former Minister of Foreign Affairs in the last Jamaica Labour Party administration with a spokesperson from the Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society, I am just baffled as to the depths of which they will continue to employ deceptive and dodgy narratives to make to enhance their public advocacy against homosexuality as it were albeit they are supposed to be a Christian organization.

Scribes and Pharisees anyone?

JCHS on the backdrop of the consultations with parliamentarians of the review or possible conscience on buggery vote as suggested turned promise by the present Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and a newly launched campaign named Justice for All held at the Conference Centre April 9. 2014 to go on for two days lead by PANCAP, the Coordinator for the Greater Involvement of Persons Living with HIV/AIDS, GIPA, Ainsley Reid spoke to the issue via media where he among other things said “The Justice for All initiative is primarily geared at consciousness of the society around issues relating to people who are living with HIV/AIDS, people who are at risk and people who are directly affected, we know that there are dignity issues, social and economic issues, primarily for people living with HIV health issues in terms of access to treatment, long term counselling and so on. He also spoke to stigma and discrimination issues including forced evictions, workplace policy and other developmental matters. He also outlined that the old perception of HIV/AIDS being a gay disease is still out there via gossip, confidentiality and cultural misnomers which was evidenced in the JCHS interview germane to this post.

One Miss Angela Temple representing the JCHS says there is an international imperialistic agenda to change the structure of the family, silencing of religious voices in the secularism agenda pinged to the struggle and that HIV prevention/reproductive rights used as a mask to hide the gay agenda. She referenced the Queen Ifrica matter, the Duck Dynasty actor issue the UK street preacher matter and the recent Mozilla CEO resignation issue after he donated money to supporting a no to gay marriage campaign and that persons won’t have free speech, she claims that the justice for all campaign here is only for a meagre four percent and the rest of persons will be up against law suits and doesn't make sense, so the minority is unimportant in her eyes and must be trampled upon. She went on to suggest the conscience vote must not be private if it happens and that a referendum would be more acceptable. She is obviously not taking into account that given her and that of JCHS/Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship’s posture no political party at this time despite slow increase in fragile tolerance and international or diplomatic pressure will take the risk to be perceived in the end as letting in homosexuality in the face of a lack of proper education and conversation not pronouncement.

The deep mistrust and lies on all sides is disturbing to me as well, the claim that future victimization of the church as I had postulated as a false dichotomy maybe not so if everyone continues to hold hardened positions with name calling, deceptive narratives devoid of factual information on all sides may I reiterate.

The sides seem to be intent on throwing blows and with each blow that comes it must be a knock out punch bigger and impactful without listening a key component in any struggle but ethics seem to have gone through the window on all sides, fear and fearmongering abounds on the part of the JCHS and related names and groups while head strong LGBT names keep pushing on their own narcissistic quests while also not listening but editorialise and academise the issues to look good on the international circuit. And where is the care from the Christian minded folks or even the existence of gay Christians or such minded persons by all sides as well. JFLAG seems not to understand that such persons also exists and must be represented in the struggle since the belief systems and God’s presence or none thereof is becoming the core of the argument. I warned about this in an earlier podcast after the full public introduction of the secularist ambit by Javed Jaghai when he was spokesperson and Education Officer of JFLAG in 2012, now comes the backlash from a more organised religious right that complains the lobby is using the strategy of rights and public health as linked to the Justice for All campaign falls, so what is wrong with such campaigns, I thought that the overall struggle for rights any at all isn't for the least numbers or outcasts? And as for imperialistic isn't this obvious tyranny of the majority thus an imperialistic thinking, theocracy anyone?

She quoted the late Paula Ettelbrick who passed in 2011, lesbian lawyer and former chair of IGLHRC where she had said “Being queer is more than setting up house sleeping with a person of the same gender and seeking state approval for doing so being queer means pushing the parameters of sex sexuality and family and in the process transforming the very fabric of society, we must keep our eyes on the goal for providing two alternatives to marriage and radically reorganising and radically reordering society’s view of reality.” As if the message implies some imperative to block or take away parental authority, rights already in vogue (marriage included) and stifling of free speech of those who express otherwise. The JCHS rep said if we touch the buggery law in any way it would be a change in the fabric of Jamaican society implying fire and brimstone from the skies, I will grant her that is true as it would in terms of the change in the fabric of society as persons who once hid may consider reorganizing their lives to be open (despite the expected cultural backlash) and I do not expect a radical or seismic shift either as persons adjust in their own ways to the new reality, these kinds of changes sometimes takes generations before one sees settling on such contentious matters as we have a cultural problem more than a legal one with decades of ingrained and normative homo-negativity.

The deceptive use of the words/terms “new sneaky rights” “new morality” and “lifestyle” (also used by the host) instead of the appropriate term sexual orientation and real attraction of persons to other persons of the same sex while imputing predatory intent is wrong and is a deliberate strategy to inflame public opposers without teaching those who are easily led. The rep also said that children as early as three will be taught that anal sex in normal when children at that age are not taught sexual reproductive health in the present hetero-imperative arrangement, she was unable to provide any proof of this future plan.

Then came the other deception of manipulating research, where the rep used the old 2010 French study (yet again) without a buggery law for over 200 years had rates of new cases to be 1006/100,000 persons in comparison to 86/100,000 intravenous drug community and 9 in the heterosexual community suggesting that persons wantonly going out there to contract HIV and what she did not put is that most of the infected MSM had never engaged the health care systems prior to study so being in the underground obviously has a ripple effect of prevention work.

What bothered me more so in this exchange is the ignoring of a fundamental question posed by Mrs Forte as to the history of the statue and why it was implemented in the first place by our former colonial masters, the JCHS representative totally dodged the matter and instead went on a well flowery and obviously scripted rant on reproductive health manipulation by the gay rights lobby and so on. I smell the hand of Dr Wayne West’s here and his influence as the sentiments about Philosophy and law were espoused though clumsily at times as if she was reading a document or being prodded behind the scenes.

Mrs Forte asked “............Do you know what was the basis of that, what it is about anal penetration that would cause lawmakers in their wisdom of yesteryear to say this is something that we need to say not at all?” the JCHS rep dodged the direct question completely by answering from a script I dare say, using terms she couldn't bother to explain to the listening audience.

“One of the things that people confuse is that they try to suggest that anal penetration is sex and it is my understanding that the intestine is not a sex organ it can’t procreate, buggery, it is the misuse of the anus ......it can do physical harm to the recipient in terms of the sphincter muscle going, people say you’re not gonna get HIV AIDS if you use a condom but the person being penetrated has on a condom is at risk and harm because the insides of the intestine were not never meant withstand the types of friction from that type of penetration, it tears easily and then you end up with a myriad of sexually transmitted diseases including HIV which is most easily transmitted in this type of environment, it must be noted that HIV is not only an epidemic it is a pandemic ........ The buggery law must remain as a danger sign because it does harm not only to the individual but to society and the world at large ..........”

Nice run to not let Mrs Forte come in with any rejoinder while deliberately avoiding the direct question, I am shocked however that Mrs Forte allowed her such a long run but I guess fairness must be shown since “freedom of speech” is about to be quashed in the eyes of the JCHS. My mind runs to an older interview with Mrs Forte and Dane Lewis in June 2013 where the same HIV is a gay disease ploy was used in a set of trick questions, she asked for eg about containing conduct if after the buggery law in its present form what would obtain to which Mr Lewis answered “........... Does the state have a right to legislate what consenting adults do in private regardless of their sexual orientation.....If we address that first then we can begin to talk about where that threshold is and so I speak about consenting adults when we talk about threshold........... Protecting our most vulnerable which would be our young people.” He also called for the non discrimination clause that was removed in draft from the Charter of Rights.

Truth as I have been agitating needs to be the core of all this but with the hardening of positions taking place somebody has to loose in the end, who will it be?

If you can stomach it have a listen here:

Previous related posts and podcasts

JAMAICA COALITION FOR A HEALTHY SOCIETY, JCHS CONTINUED CONFUSION OF PAEDOPHILIA & CONSENTING HOMOSEXUALITY.

BUY NO RINGS, YOU WON’T WED; RELIGIOUS FEAR-MONGERING ON GAY MARRIAGE & THE BUGGERY LAW CONTINUES

LAWYERS’ CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP’S CONTINUED FEAR MONGERING ON CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION POST BUGGERY LAW AMENDMENT & RE-SOCIALIZATION

THE USE OF JAMAICAN DIALECT TO FURTHER STIGMATISE HOMOSEXUALS IN THE NEW PATOIS BIBLE

URGENT NEED TO DISCUSS SEX & SEXUALITY NATIONALLY PART 2

BETTY ANN BLAINE’S ARRANT NONSENSE REQUEST OF PETER KING TAPES

CHURCH STANDS RESOLUTE AGAINST BUGGERY BACKERS SAYS AL MILLER ………… LOVE MARCH MOVEMENT LACKS MORAL COMPASS SAYS LGBT VOICE

LET THE PEOPLE DECIDE …….. PARLIAMENT URGED TO PUT BUGGERY LAW ISSUE TO A REFERENDUM

BETTY ANN BLAINE ON ……………… SOLD OUT FOR 30 PIECES OF SILVER?

GOVERNMENT COMMITS TO STOMP OUT HIV/AIDS STIGMA … WE HOPE IT’S NOT JUST PAPER LEFT FOR FILING (starring the very host of this post's interview when she was a government minister)

Queen Ifrica's "Freedom of Speech" & advocacy found wanting


UPDATE April 16
an article (very lengthy) by another JCHS advocate: Tolerance, Political Correctness And The Death Of Truth

Peace and tolerance

H

Northern Caribbean University female Cheerleader Suspended After playing male role in cheerleading show, thumb ring/pierced tongue designated as infractions

Clear discrimination here folks, no question asked sheer ignorance and a theocratic agenda by the the Seventh Day Adventist institution located in Manchester but I am not surprised as they have factored before in homo-negative matters with even one of its own heads facing scrutiny some years ago and an infamous attack of profiled students by other students. See the SDA's position on homosexuality HERE

First here is the Gleaner version of the matter  

NCU cheerleaders are seen here enacting a proposal atop a human pyramid. - Photo via Facebook

A female student at the Northern Caribbean University (NCU) who was suspended after she played the role of a man in a cheerleading routine is accusing the university of discrimination.

During the March 4 cheerleading competition, the student enacted a wedding proposal and allegedly kissed the hand of another female atop a human pyramid while doing her routine.

In a Facebook post yesterday, the student disclosed that she had received a two-week suspension from NCU.

However, she believes the punishment was not fair given that she was the only one in the cheerleading group who was penalised.

According to the student, she was not the only one who performed or who was atop the pyramid and who took part in the mock proposal.

She says it was decided that she would represent the male in the proposal because a man would have been too heavy for the top of the pyramid.

She says the Brodie House Cheerleading team did not see anything wrong with the pyramid as they were aware of what the group was trying to depict.

No discrimination

Meanwhile, the NCU’s student government says there was no discrimination in the imposition of a penalty on the student.

A member of NCU’s student government in charge of student services, Darren Barrett who sat on the committee that met with the female student said she breached other university regulations.

Barrett says it was later determined that the student was responsible for changing the original routine which was not approved by a social committee.

He further says the student appeared before the Citizenship Committee without her identification card and had a pierced tongue.

Barrett says the other female student who was involved in the mock proposal was called to a meeting but did not turn up.

He says no action has been taken against that student.

ENDS

The subsequent audio with a voice described as Barrett's also reflected a disturbing mindset and autocratic decision making process at the leadership levels here singling out the student Mr Barrett said "She knew that she had a meeting with the Vice President of the University and came to the office without displaying her, without an ID, the student ID, also with a thumb ring whichever colour it was but she wore a thumb ring which she had no; which she knew I should say that she shouldn't have worn and so with that in mind the administration saw that as blatant disregard for the policy of the university therefore that adds to the suspension."

Really Mr Barrett? nitpicking here to find something to punish her for breaking the gender norms when it was a clear logistics matter in terms of weight of male students who would have been too heavy on top of females in forming the pyramid, I don't see the other participants complaining and some if not most of the students in the audience cheered in fact when the kiss was planted as the video shows the actual session @ 6:14/5 there was also some dissent as well if one closely examines the clip but be that as it may it is clear where the student services and leadership wanted to go with this.

When will our tertiary institutions step ahead and become forward thinking or is it a lack of multi-generational ignorance and lack of exposure to sex and sexuality matters in our education system playing itself out here via those autocratic rules about dress on a campus where ADULTS mostly are in attendance and since she had these items prior to know why wasn't action taken before now? 

HFLE anyone? more on that HERE

Hmph waiting for her to trip eh?

some comments from the Gleaner shows the ignorance and some sense at the same time:

I thought females expressing emotional attitudes to each other in Jamaica was somewhat accepted here or is this specific lesbo-profiling of the particular student to her demeanour as some other comments on social media seems to suggest. A thumb ring or pierced tongues or ear tops by women are considered as markers for some folks out there and serves as justifications to discriminate on spot in some instances.

Sigh

Anyway congrats to the team for being so forward thinking, one more institution to bring into the light of modernity I suppose. Also see: UTECH Tolerance campaign following the student abuse by guards caught on tape, the case was dismissed and the two accused were set free.

also see: NCU Has Rights Too! 

CVM TV's midday news carried the matter as well where Miss Carolyn Gomes redeemed herself of sorts after the "H" word infraction at the IACHR meeting  other matters were covered at that press conference as well as the new ED for Jamaicans for Justice made her debut appearance and it was none other than former TVJ head Kay Osbourne who denied the tolerance ad airing at the time, hope she has come to some understanding now.

Lastly

UPDATE April 9th Lasmay of the Gleaner touched the issue via a Victorian themed toon, the inquisition comes to mind:

RJR's Beyond the headline had a follow up discussion on this with attorney at law and talk show host Clyde Williams:

CVM TV carried the item finally on April 9th:

Here was the institution's attempt to out the fire

UPDATE

AUDIO: NCU Says Suspension Of Cheerleader Is Justified, Punishment Lenient CVM TV's Live @ 7 had the cheerleader herself on set to explain her case, Sha Shana James also revealed she will be leaving the institution. 

Watch the full interview on CVM TV's website from last evening's Live @ 7 show HERE More follow up news items as the furore continues:

April 16th UPDATE Gleaner article: Sex And The University

Also see Sociologist and talk show host Dr Orville Taylor's take in the Sunday Gleaner: NCU, JCF & Justice

also listen the last interview I was able to get my hands on:

Nationwide @ 5 NCU Cheerleader Sha Shauna James by Djhowiejam on Mixcloud

Peace and tolerance

H

Jamaican Transgender Activist Turned Away From Bacchanal

I am so mad after seeing this article on the Gleaner's Entertainment page today, clear case of transphobic hate here as the leading public face for trans persons after decades of trans-invisibility now this, not to exclude the work done by Miss L Garcia and local allies. She (Tiana) recently also ended the Aprhrodite's P.R.I.D.E Jamaica Enterprise training session and recieved her certificate of participation/completion only last Sunday at the closing ceremony.

The Gleaner reported:

For several years, Tiana Miller has been a regular patron at Bacchanal. This year, she even attended the launch in January. But two Fridays ago, the avid soca fan told The Sunday Gleaner she was quite surprised and embarrassed when, for the first time, she was denied entry.

Miller is a fairly well-known transgender woman and human-rights activist. Last year, she appeared in the 'We Are Jamaicans' campaign, a landmark viral video spearheaded by the Jamaica Forum of Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays (J-FLAG).

"My friends and I went to the gate, and just as we were about to go in, a male security guard started gesturing at us. When we got closer to him he said that he did want any of us in there tonight. My friend asked him what he meant by that and he said 'no cross-dressers'," Miller stated.

Embarrassed and confused, Miller left the venue.

According to Dane Lewis, executive director at J-FLAG, "What has happened to Tiana is evidence of the very real exclusion and discrimination that many LGBT Jamaicans face. It's not just about violent homophobic responses to LGBT people, it's about homophobic responses overall," Lewis said.

'We are humans'

Though she has not ruled out returning to the event, Miller had strong words for the security officers and promoters of the event.

"You can't treat LGBT people like this. We are humans; please respect us. I go to Bacchanal to enjoy myself. I don't violate any rules. I behave like any other female patron would. I am a transgender woman. Don't treat me or any transgender person like this. You shouldn't deny people entry because you think they are not what you think is 'normal'," Miller, who is also trained to go into communities and organisations to talk to them about LGBT issues, told The Sunday Gleaner.

Lewis also expressed surprise at the incident happening at Bacchanal.

"I was quite surprised to learn about this incident because Bacchanal is known for being an inclusive space for LGBT Jamaicans. I hope the organisers will not only provide some clarity on this, but ensure that LGBT people are not excluded from the event," said Lewis.

Miller is certainly not the first transgender Jamaican to have experienced discrimination or hostility at an event in Jamaica, and Miller has had at least one similar incident at Bacchanal prior to this one, but she says it was dealt with very professionally by the organisers and the security personnel.

When contacted, Marcia McDonough, managing director of Touchstone Production, the public relations company in charge of Bacchanal, told The Sunday Gleaner she was unaware of the incident, but that it was unusual.

"I don't know anything about it, so I wouldn't be able to comment on it because I am not one of the organisers. Apart from persons who are underage, I am not aware of any rule barring anyone else," she said.

ENDS

Annually we have issues at Jamaica carnival but I was not expecting this as cross dressers or transwomen (mistaken as drag queens) are usually tolerated at certain spots in Kingston especially and there is the long held perception that the gay community used the occasions as a gay pride celebration of sorts. Tiana Miller is also slated to appear on All Angles shown on Television Jamaica as well.

Peace and tolerance

H