Arsenal and France football legend Thierry Henry retires

Tuesday, December 16, 2014 | 10:07 AM    

PARIS, France (AFP) – Former Arsenal and French striker Thierry Henry announced Tuesday he was retiring from football after a glittering two decades long career and will become a TV analyst for Sky Sports in England.

“After 20 years in the game I have decided to retire from professional football,” Henry said in a statement on his Facebook page.

Henry, 37, a world and European champion with France, and the scorer of 228 goals with Arsenal including 175 English Premier League goals for the club, finished his playing career at New York Red Bulls just days ago.

“It is now time for a different career path and I am pleased to say that I will be returning to London and joining Sky Sports,” he said.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said recently that Henry will “certainly” return to the club in some capacity in the future.

Henry, who has a daughter based in England, himself said in recent weeks that he wants to help Arsenal win the Champions League.

Henry first made his mark at French club Monaco before moving to Italian giants Juventus.

But the bulk of his career was spent at Arsenal under Wenger, who brought him to north London in 1999.

He was a crucial part of the 2003-2004 “Invincibles” team alongside fellow Frenchman Patrick Vieira, which went unbeaten as it stormed to the Premier League title.

In England, Henry won the Premier League twice and the FA Cup three times.

Henry left England for Barcelona in 2007, spending three years with the Spanish giants with whom he won the Champions League trophy in 2009.

He finished his career in the United States, playing for the New York Red Bulls in the MLS, but returned to Arsenal for four matches on loan from the Red Bulls in 2012, coming on as a substitute to score the winner against Leeds in the third round of the FA Cup.

He could not however prevent the Red Bulls being eliminated in the semi-finals of the playoffs this season.

Henry will also be remembered for a blatant handball in a 2009 World Cup qualifying playoff against the Republic of Ireland which led to the decisive goal for France and a ticket to the 2010 finals.

His last international game was during the 2010 World Cup when he came on as a second-half substitute in a 2-1 loss to hosts South Africa as France were dumped out of a tournament which had been a fiasco for the 1998 World Cup winners.

Capped 123 times for France, he scored a national record 51 goals during his international career which began with a 2-1 win over South Africa in October 1997.

Tributes poured in for Henry, who scored 411 goals during his career, with French professional football league president Frederic Thiriez describing him as a “legend”.

“The English erected a statue to him but in France he did not always get the recognition he deserved,” said Thiriez of the statute dedicated to Henry at the Emirates Stadium.

“With his extraordinary track record and his record of goals for the national side, Thierry Henry nevertheless will remain a legend, he was an exceptional striker. Simply the best.”

Former England international Gary Lineker, now a broadcaster, tweeted: “Congratulations to @ThierryHentry on a truly wonderful career. One of the great footballers of our time and a top bloke. Bonne chance.”

Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey also tweeted: “Congratulations on an outstanding career @ThierryHenry. Top player. Top guy. #Legend,” while England and Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge, added: “Happy retirement to my hero and idol @ThierryHenry. Wish you all the best in the next chapter.”

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Arsenal and France football legend Thierry Henry retires

Gareth Henry values lessons learnt at Puerto Rico International

BY RUDDY ALLEN Observer staff reporter

Friday, December 26, 2014    

JAMAICA’S number one male badminton player Gareth Henry crashed out of the Puerto Rico International Tournament when he was beaten by Howard Shu from the United States of America (USA) in the third round of the competition in Puerto Rico on Monday.

Henry played valiantly and could have upset the number one seed Shu, but seemed to have lost his focus and went crashing in a thrilling three- setter 21-18, 21-23 and 14-21 in his last international tournament of 2014.

Henry, however, should gain some valuable points for his world rankings, which will now boost his process of qualifying for the Olympics set for Rio 2016.

“I really thought I was going to win this one, but tactically I wasn’t at my best. Many points I had the upper hand in and didn’t capitalise on them as I wasn’t aggressive enough in the front court to finish them. Then I rushed too many overhead shots and made a little too many unforced errors in doing so.

“But that is what makes the difference against players of this calibre. I must work on finding the balance now,” Henry said.

As the 2014 tournament circuit ends, Henry is ready to shuttle into 2015 as he gets prepared for Rio 2016. He now heads to Indonesia for eight weeks of intense training.

“Disappointed with the loss, but I took a lot from it. This was my final tournament of the 2014 circuit. I will hopefully get two proper months of training in Indonesia with the help of the Jamaica Badminton Association (JBA). I am very excited about the possibility as I will finally receive good sparring and training of the highest level,” Henry noted.

Earlier in the competition, Henry easily defeated Germany’s top player Nilis Kloeppel 21-17 and 21-11 in the first round before he went on to beat Puerto Rican Ivan Morales 21-12 and 21-7 in the second round.

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Gareth Henry values lessons learnt at Puerto Rico International

Henry S. Fraser: Marriage, obesity, health and ageing

Henry S. Fraser

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Sunday September 14, 2014 - Last week’s column on healthy ageing evoked quite a lot of comment, appreciation and the pointing out of one important omission – the value of marriage! How could I omit that, after 44 years of marriage?

This was an unfortunate oversight, of course, because a great deal of data have consistently shown that marriage promotes longevity, but especially in men. Men, marry if you want to live long … but make sure you marry for the right reasons, and living long will be the great big bonus, or “added value” that comes with it, although not in the marriage contract! Of course bad marriages can shorten life dramatically, through suicide or homicide. As the feisty Lady Astor, British MP nearly a hundred years ago, said to Sir Winston Churchill: “Winston, if I was your wife, I’d put poison in your tea.” To which Winston replied, quick as a flash: “And if I was your husband, I’d drink it.”

“Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies.” (Proverbs, 31:10)

The fact is, people who never marry are far more likely to die prematurely than those who get hitched or even divorced, according to research reported on the BBC website last month, and therefore readily accessible to everyone. Actually, the report by Kaplan and Kronick was published in 2006, in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, but its implications are of huge importance in today’s dysfunctional society where marriage seems to be seen as old fashioned, and family values and responsibilities increasingly disparaged.

Kaplan and Kronick looked at the relationship between marital status and survival, using the US 1989 National Health Interview Survey and the 1997 National death index, providing follow up over eight years. Their results are summarised in simpler form as follows:

“Among the 1997 respondents, almost 6,000 (9 %) died before 1997 and 61,000 (91%) were known to be alive. Controlling for demographic and socioeconomic factors, the death rate for people who were unmarried was significantly higher than it was for those who were married and living with their spouses. Although the effect was significant for all categories of unmarried, it was strongest for those who had never married. The effect was seen for both sexes, and was significantly stronger for men than for women. For the youngest age group (19–44), the chief causes of early death among adults who had never married were infectious disease (presumably HIV) and external causes. In the middle aged and older men and women, the predominant causes were cardiovascular and other chronic diseases.

It has been postulated that loneliness, including lack of intimate social and family support is an important contributor to the phenomenon. And in our study of Centenarians in Barbados at the CDRC, led by Dr. Susan Archer, while religiosity and a physically active life were the key factors in their longevity, strong family and social support were almost as strong.

As the Bible says: “A virtuous woman is worth more than rubies” and today’s science lends strong support to that other famous biblical injunction: “If they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.” (1 Corinthians, 7:9)

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But a good marriage is so much more than good sex: it is the union of like minds, generous spirits and souls of good conscience – leading to love that lasts, and like good wine improves with age. These aspects of human nature and behaviour are harder to study objectively, but not marrying is so much more frequently associated with superficial relationships and “greater isolation from children and other family.”

The other major factor affecting life expectancy is that of obesity and the related chronic diseases – high blood pressure, diabetes and high blood lipids (fats), otherwise known as the metabolic syndrome – that is so common in Barbados and in other populations of the African diaspora. Again the BBC has recently highlighted an important aspect of the obesity phenomenon – that of discrimination and the personal perception of discrimination. Overweight and obesity have now captured three quarters of many western adult populations, including the British, Barbadians and African Americans, with obesity (a body mass index of greater than 30, or what the lay person would simply describe as fat) accounting for one third of these populations. In the Caribbean the men are significantly leaner, as are the young British men, but by middle age they’ve almost caught up with their lady folk. What this means is that overweight and obesity are now the new norm, with all the dangerous health consequences, while leanness is seen only in the minority of adults. Yet discrimination and the perception of discrimination persists, and the world does not cater either on airplanes, trains or in many other places, for the obese.

The recent study reported by the BBC, in which 3,000 people in an ageing study were questioned about their perception of discrimination or harassment on the basis of their weight, found that 1 in 20 felt they had experienced such discrimination, but among the morbidly obese (very fat or BMI greater than 40 and associated with multiple problems) the figure was one in three. A valuable outcome of the study, one hopes, is the emphasis by Sarah Jackson, lead author of the study at University College London, that discrimination of any kind is counterproductive, causes stress and comfort eating. Physicians in particular must be strongly supportive, giving facts but working in very positive ways to address the problem and especially to encourage healthy life styles to prevent it in the first place. This is especially important with our children, most of whom are now obsessed with (and often over-indulged with) cell phones, game boys, ipads and all things computerised, substituting thumb exercise for healthy physical activity and are becoming obese teenagers, with increasing incidence of maturity type diabetes occurring in their teens!

Brickbat: To Alex Salmond and his emotional Scottish National Party for following the lead of so many other petty power-playing politicians in trying to break Scotland away from the United Kingdom, to the clear likely detriment of both.

Professor Fraser is past Dean of Medical Sciences, UWI and Professor Emeritus of Medicine. Website:  profhenryfraser.com

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Henry S. Fraser: Marriage, obesity, health and ageing

Henry S. Fraser: Ageing with grace, with a grin, and in motion!

Henry S. Fraser

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Wednesday September 10, 2014 - Having just celebrated my 70th birthday, the whole question of ageing and how we do it has been occupying my thoughts a bit more than usual. There are so many things that determine how long we live, and how we live long … that is, how we deal with it, and enjoy it. And the quotes above have a great deal of truth.

Research on ageing has been going on for some time, although attempts to slow or stop it, mostly ridiculous, have been made for millenia. And every day we read reports of new research with evidence of some of the factors that may determine if we drop dead at forty, live like a sick frog to ninety or go out sailing and singing at a hundred and two.

The study Centenarians in Barbados (CIB) carried out by Dr. Susan Archer as a PhD project, funded jointly by an Edmund Cohen Grant, Sagicor and the UWI, with the supervision of Dr. Farley Brathwaite and me, demonstrated very clearly that strong spiritual faith, an active life style and strong social relations were the keys to our centenarians’ long lives. And it should be noted that although Dominica’s life expectancy is longer than ours; and the Japanes province of Okinawa has the highest rates of centenarians, Barbados has the highest national figures for centenarians.

‘You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough’ (Mae West)

But note, today’s centenarians grew up not in the land of post-Independence and fast food plenty, but in the rigorous early decades of the twentieth century where EVERYONE walked or cycled and few were fat. Of our 60 centenarians studied, only six had ever been told they might be diabetic or hypertensive, and none had ever been obese.

Of course, genes do have a lot to do with longevity, and there are families where every sibling seems to survive into the nineties or to reach the century. But environment plays an equally large part, with many “inputs”. Physical activity is perhaps the most important overall positive agent, although cigarette smoking can be devastating and have a far greater negative effect, and causing the “drop dead” scenario. Diet and obesity play a huge part, and many other factors play a role. The result of all the research is that you can now go on the web and use one of several complex “equations” or questionnaires to compute your PROBABLE life expectancy.

‘Age is an issue of mind over matter … if you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.’ (Mark Twain)

Meanwhile here are some of the widely accepted tips, in no particular order, but with the order perhaps reflecting my own knowledge of the data and some biases of my own:

Exercise, exercise, exercise, i.e. be active. Walk, dance, play a game, swim or the gym or whatever you like. My favourites are the gym, the swim (best all round exercise of all, and puts no pressure on your joints) and table tennis. This keeps your balance and coordination in shape, as well as keeping you slimmer and fitter in every way. And use the stairs whenever you can. But lifting weights is absolutely essential to keep your muscles from wasting. You need, if you fall at 99, to be able to get up off the floor!

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Eat healthy: the fact is that high sugar, high fat, high salt and low fibre are bad if excessive, and fish, vegetables (high fibre) and foods like plain yogurt are good … There is, of course, excessive hype about healthy diet and fortunes made at the expense of the gullible on claims for all kinds of “neutraceuticals”, but follow two general rules: first, if you’re fat, eat less; and secondly, simply eat less sugar, salt and fat, and more fibre, fish, fruit and veggies.

‘You can’t help getting older, but you don’t have to get old’ (George Burns, centenarian entertainer)

Don’t worry, be happy. When you get out of bed in the morning and discover you’re still alive, even though you may be stiff as a board and still tired, thank God for another day and DECIDE to be happy. I let almost nothing cause me anxiety, because that’s a sure way to shorten my life. A career in medicine and management can only be handled by coping constructively with stress, and whether it’s a big thing like a close friend dying or a major hurricane, or a little thing like the electricity going off or a fender bender, remember that two thirds of the world’s population are living in abject poverty, or malnourished or at war.

And there are many other things you can do that have been shown to both prolong life and to make life happier and more fulfilling; keeping the brain active – crossword puzzles, writing, organising; keeping on learning – through a hobby or reading or new projects; laughing more – humour has long been known to be a great medicine – laugh frequently – joke – read humorous book and share humour; give and do good things for others – being thoughtful, kind and generous has huge positive effects on wellbeing and happiness, AND makes you live longer; keep a pet – or more than one; wear comfortable clothes and shoes, but continue to look good – keep your hair cut and neat; and floss your teeth!

Bottom lines: Move it or you lose it! Walk more, eat less! Don’t worry, be happy! And enjoy every day of your life while you’re still above ground.

Professor Fraser is past Dean of Medical Sciences, UWI and Professor Emeritus of Medicine. Website:  profhenryfraser.com

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Henry S. Fraser: Ageing with grace, with a grin, and in motion!

Henry S. Fraser: Society School and the Codrington Legacy

Codrington College (File)

Henry S. Fraser

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Monday Juy 28, 2014 - “My two plantations in the island of Barbados to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts … and a convenient number of Professors and Scholars maintained there, all of them to be under vows of poverty and chastity and obedience … to study and practice Physic and Chirurgery as well as Divinity, that by the apparent usefulness of the former to all mankind, they may both endear themselves to the people and have the better opportunities of doing good to men’s souls whilst they are taking care of their bodies …” (From the will of Colonel Christopher Codrington, who died on Good Friday, April 7th, 1710.)

Christopher Codrington was described as the brightest star of Barbados – scholar, poet, public orator, soldier, governor and Christian benefactor. His vision of a University for Barbados to train Christian doctors, to care for their bodies and save the souls of all mankind, was an extraordinary vision, two and a half centuries ahead of the University of the West Indies. And his vision certainly inspired me, as a teenager at The Lodge School, one of the products of his vision, to become a Christian doctor at the institution that extended the mission of Codrington.

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Unfortunately the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG) turned out to be hopeless managers. The college buildings were well underway by 1721 but not completed until 1743 and the Codrington Grammar School finally began in 1745. Because of inept management from afar, the school suffered serious vicissitudes and the College of Codrington’s vision never materialised until the arrival of our first bishop, William Hart Coleridge. He recognised the failure of the SPG and was able to bring the College into being, by moving the school up the hill to the “Upper Estate”, now called Society, to the Chaplain’s Lodge, in 1829 and so it became The Lodge School. The College began in full, at last, in 1830 and was later affiliated with the University of Durham. It trained priests, teachers and administrators for the entire English speaking Caribbean and beyond, including my father-in-law, the revered Lee Harford Skeete, and most Caribbean priests and bishops for nearly 150 years.

While the College building contains its own splendid small chapel, beautifully panelled and with a barrel vaulted ceiling, the SPG built a larger, wooden chapel for the slaves in 1819 – the first conscientious attempt within the Anglican community to bring Christianity to the slaves. It was replaced by a stone chapel in 1831, and after this was blown down in the 1831 hurricane, the present Society Chapel, now Holy Cross Church, was built, under guidance of Bishop Coleridge.

Meanwhile, the College began a Sunday School for the slave children in 1795. This became a full primary school in 1797, an initiative that would have been much against the wishes of planters across the Caribbean, who were against such instruction for slaves. It is truly a shining historical legacy … the first known school set up to teach the slave children here and possibly anywhere in the Caribbean, unless preceded by Moravian schools in the Danish Virgin Islands. The present building of Society School is a solid coral stone structure on a solid plateau of rock in the middle of Society Hill, built more than a hundred years ago. It caters to the surrounding villages of Society, College Bottom, Sargeant Street, Coach Hill, Massiah Street and Stewart’s Hill. And at the top of the hill, next to Holy Cross and the cross commemorating Reverend Rawle, is the sprawling complex of Codrington School.

The Codrington legacy has thus resulted in Codrington College, The Lodge School, Society School, the Rawle Institute (replaced by Erdiston Teachers College), Codrington School and Holy Cross Church – six important, historic educational establishments which have had a huge impact not only on Barbados but the wider Caribbean. Indeed the Society School has produced famous figures like Rawle Parkinson, the great, legendary educator after whom the Parkinson School is named, and today’s distinguished, globally successful alumni such as Dr. Ken Harewood and Dr. Louis Brown, as well as a long list of local luminaries.

It was therefore a shock to pupils, parents, teachers, alumni, historians and the wider society to hear in June of the sudden closure of Society School. This follows poor maintenance leading to the need for industrial cleaning last September, which resulted in a drop in the number of students. Shocked parents, teachers, parish priest and others have organised a petition and efforts to keep this historic educational monument open. Distinguished alumni of the school have joined the effort, vocalised by attorney David Commissiong, and at a large meeting of parents last Sunday the passion for maintaining the school was clear, echoed in a CBC-TV news poll of 85 % of responders voting to keep it open.

My own assessment is that the historic importance of the school justifies its continuing existence even if it remains a small school, by amalgamating so as to reduce the number of classes, as has been suggested. From what I have been told by several parties, it seems that the physical problems are poor maintenance and not structural; the need for industrial cleaning last September allegedly led to the drop in the roll as some parents were so upset that they removed their children. Primary school children should not have to travel long distances to school. And the importance of the Codrington legacy and the entire Codrington complex, in the opinion of many, justifies World Heritage inscription. In fact Barbados has submitted the Sugar (and Rum) Industry of Barbados as a tentative nomination, and Codrington’s six institutions with their rich and unique history comprise a hugely important part of the larger nomination. We should therefore be proud not only of the history of Society, its seminal role in the education of slave children and the building of its surrounding community, but of its brilliant alumni here and around the world. We should do everything to keep it open and rebuild its great reputation. While alternative uses of the building can be considered, our Governments’ outstanding record over decades of abandoning buildings to decay does not give hope.

The Sentinel Committee of the National Trust will be more than willing to assess and report on the physical state of the school, before it joins the many other derelict built treasures abandoned by successive governments over the past 40 years.

Bouquet: To Glyne Murray on the launch on Wednesday of his splendid book Barbados – Customs to Treasure.

Professor Fraser is past Dean of Medical Sciences, UWI and Professor Emeritus of Medicine. Website:  profhenryfraser.com

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Henry S. Fraser: Society School and the Codrington Legacy

Henry S. Fraser: The Chronic Disease Research Centre – a Cave Hill Star

Henry S. Fraser

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Sunday July 20, 2014 - When the Reverend Griffith Hughes, parish priest of St. Lucy, published his Natural History of Barbados in 1750, he literally launched the Age of Enlightenment in Barbados. Newspapers proliferated, theatre flourished and three secondary schools – Combermere, Harrison and Lodge – were established. Barbadians were making a name for themselves, in Britain and North America. Eminent physicians such as Dr. William Hillary were attracted to Barbados and carried out ground breaking research in the 1750s.

It was my dream to re-establish Barbados and UWI Cave Hill as a global centre for medical research, and in 1990 I was challenged by my colleague Trevor Hassell, now Professor Sir Trevor Hassell, to develop a research centre for chronic diseases. With the support of Professor Sir Ken Stuart in Britain and funding from the Overseas Development Agency of the UK, a National Institute of Health Grant awarded to Professor Richard Cooper of Loyola University of Chicago for a study of hypertension which included Barbados (the well-known ICSHIB Study), and the collaboration of the Ministry of Health, the UWI was able to open the doors of the Chronic Disease Research Centre (CDRC) in 1992. Our mission was to do the research that would inform policy, planning and programmes, to temper the growing epidemic of chronic diseases. The site was a suite of three rooms in the condemned residence ‘Avalon’ on Jemmott’s Lane, an early 19th century merchant’s house used as doctors’ flats for the QEH until condemned for lack of maintenance in the early 1980s. Inspection revealed only peeling paint and cosmetic problems! With perseverance we had this 14 room house restored at a fraction of the cost of a new building, and it has worked wonderfully well.

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I’ve seen my dream come true with the recent 10 year anniversary of the Edmund Cohen Vascular Research (ECOVAR) Laboratory. The new (third) Director of the CDRC, Professor Clive Landis, organised a celebration, honoured by the presence of Mr. Peter Cohen, son of the benefactor Mr. Edmund Cohen, founder of Courts. It marked 10 years since the opening on March 31st, 2004, as an annexe to the CDRC.

Actually, the Edmund Cohen Lab is unique. It was delivered with some flair on the back of a lorry. This is the story of the “lab in a container”. I was inspired by the use of retro-fitted, cheap, metal Nissen huts and shipping containers at Hammersmith Hospital, the leading medical research centre in the UK, where I did my specialist training and PhD, and I found Bajan builders retro-fitting them for use as work site offices. So when I discovered that Dr. Clive Landis, a leading researcher at Hammersmith, had taken the brilliant step of marrying a Bajan girl and wanted to work in Barbados, and there was no lab space in the University or the QEH, the penny dropped; Clive and I soon created a splendid lab in a retrofitted, plumbed and “electrified” container!

It works well and is loved by its staff: small but perfect, in an 8 x 40 foot tunnel! 320 square feet, state of the art, for a third the price of a concrete building … and financed by the generosity of Mr. Edmund Cohen, hence the name the ECOVAR Lab, and SAGICOR, and equipped with a grant from BAYER.

Under the leadership of Professor Landis the lab has established itself as the leading vascular research centre in the Caribbean, with 50 plus peer reviewed papers over 10 years. The lab also serves as an Immunology training hub, delivering undergraduate medical and PhD programmes for UWI, publishing HIV research with the National AIDS Program, and acting as regional co-ordinating centre running accredited HIV/AIDS training workshops across the Caribbean. Research is focused on the role of inflammation and its resolution, improving the surgeon’s understanding of inflammation and hemostasis, and it has impacted patient care in ways that will continue to be felt many years to come. A seminal achievement has been creation of the first Clinical Practice Guidelines on attenuating the systemic inflammatory response to heart surgery

The Immunology PhD program was established in 2008 and has two in-house PhD students, Dr. Kim Quimby and Andre Greenidge, and one off-site student, Songee Branch-Beckles at the Ministry of Health. Other research is carried out on sickle cell disease, HIV/AIDS transmission and wound healing in diabetes .

Meanwhile, the CDRC has also grown exponentially, from an embryonic vision and a “lively adolescent” when I demitted office in 2005, it has contributed an enormous body of valuable research under my successor Professor Anselm Hennis: discovery of a NEW gene for glaucoma; the definitive Barbados study of prostate cancer in men of African descent; outcomes of diabetes in pregnancy on teenagers; collaborative asthma study with Johns Hopkins University; definitive population study of lupus; the Barbados Stroke Study, leading to our Stroke Unit at the QEH; Centenarians in Barbados; and the Barbados National Registry for stroke, heart attacks and cancer. It has sourced millions in foreign exchange in grants, provided many jobs and hugely boosted the research reputation of Barbados and the UWI. And its mission is beautifully depicted in the mural “Physicus – the Art of Healthy Living” by Don Small, on the Western wall of the building … Stop and be inspired!

The CDRC is a dynamic, growing Centre, a major star of the University, and the Edmund Cohen Lab, perhaps the JEWEL IN THE CROWN…. Thanks to the commitment, hard work and team work of many, it has all succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.

Brickbat: To six policemen in Trinidad who set fire to a teenager. The worst excesses of slavery and the Nazi era are still active across the Caribbean.

Bouquet: To the Prime Minister, who at the meeting of the full Social Partnership on Friday stated that at some stage it may be necessary to widen the grouping due to several agencies “knocking at the door” … “The Social Partnership has really not changed its stakeholder view since its formation and the stage may well be reached in the not too distant future where we broaden its base to include other social partners who have sufficient purchase in society that their voices need to be heard.” (Advocate, Saturday July 19, page 3.)

Professor Fraser is past Dean of Medical Sciences, UWI and Professor Emeritus of Medicine. Website:  profhenryfraser.com

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Henry S. Fraser: The Chronic Disease Research Centre – a Cave Hill Star

Henry S. Fraser: Things that delight me over and over!

Jamaica national flower, Lignum Vitae

Henry S. Fraser

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Sunday June 29, 2014 - In 1949, a splendid little book, Delight, by English author J.B. Priestley, was published, to the delight of thousands of readers. It was described as a collection of short essays on the little things in life that caused even him, a self-confessed old monster, to stop and smile! A few years ago a new and equally whimsical version appeared – Modern Delight by Nick Hornby and others – a collection of the little things that delight a wide range of people. It encouraged me, ever since, to enjoy even more the many things of great beauty and charm that we often take for granted. So this column is, in a way, a personal confessional.

One of my greatest delights at this time is the spectacular carnival of bougainvillea, in every colour, on every corner, around the country. But I’m equally delighted by the sometimes subtle, sometimes dramatic sequence of flowering trees bursting into bloom. This display in our garden usually starts with a few lonely frangipani flowers, and the delicate blue flowers of the lignum vitae. This elegant tree has perhaps the hardest wood in the world and its flower is the national flower of Jamaica. Its reputation for producing abortions (and a haemorrhagic cystitis) allegedly led to a law banning it in Barbados, and so there are only a few really old specimens – the avenues at Harrison College and Queen’s Park House – but happily it’s popular once again, and I have both mature and younger specimens.

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The lignum vitae is followed sometime in April / May by our two yellow classics… the poui and the cassia fistula. I planted mine side by side, but they rarely coincide exactly in their proud displays. And then there are the hundreds of flamboyants everywhere (Poincianas in the rest of the Caribbean, named for the Duke de Poince, the seventeenth century French Governor of St. Kitts). Temperature and humidity determine their day of display – April in the drier coastal Christ Church, but not until May or early June on higher ground, in our “mountain districts”!

Other simple delights: the wonderful warm, wet welcome of our many dogs. The affection of the tough “rescue dog” Bruno, the Rottweiler-Mastiff, which I found at the RSPCA. He’s the best of watch dogs, but has a really soft heart for his rescuer, and eyes that would melt the hardest heart. And then there’s my big Dog de Bordeaux; Simba who loves to give paw, and Tiger the Doberman, who can smell a stranger a mile off and barks like mad! What’s great about them all is that the later I come home the happier they are to see me!

And the beauty of trees … in my garden; at Queen’s Park, with our magnificent baobab; at Andromeda; at the Flower Forest; at Welchman Hall; at Bath; those splendid palms along the highway; the spiritual silk cottons and ficuses everywhere. Stand and look up at them at dusk and sense their majesty and the power and beauty and grace of God and all creation.

And the sea – the glorious sea, that most Bajans ignore. Enjoy its calm on a sunny day, when you can float at peace, and enjoy the sense of strength and health as you swim and feel truly part of the universe. And enjoy the energy and beauty of the surf at Accra or the Crane or Bathsheba, our most sacred place in the great cathedral of the Scotland District.

Other simple delights I enjoy every day are the warm and sincere exchanges with people I meet every day. A greeting, a word of “Hello”, “Good morning” or “How are you”; and simply “making four eyes” with the other person is a pleasure for everyone who shares in that way, and a privilege many in this world never have. (And yet how many people move through life with eyes averted, sullen, sad, bored or rude, never caring to share the warmth of a simple greeting.)

And then there are the gastronomic delights, which for some seem to be the only pleasures, creating morbid obesity, illness and early death. I can think of nothing more delightful than Greek yoghurt with honey – one of my few imported favourites, with which I’ve had to replace my favourite Pine Hill yoghurt, now no more; and then there’s my wife’s hot coconut bread and cassava pone – to die for! And as a West Indian, nothing delights more than my first taste of red pea soup and ackee and salt fish whenever I go to Jamaica, or a shrimp roti in Trinidad!

But what is life without love. The delight of sharing with close friends and family is exceeded only by the infinite joy of going to sleep and waking up with the most wonderful wife in the world! Amen!

Brickbat: To FIFA, the World Cup and the entire game of football, which has deteriorated into an aggressive, all-in wrestling match. The fouls that are allowed, the fisticuffs and wrestling, the tripping and the dramatic histrionic displays of pretended injury with instant recovery have made a mockery of the game, formerly known as football and now more correctly designated “Wrestle ball”. I’ve been frankly disgusted by the whole charade. And I condemn equally the local game, where photographs show wrestling players with the caption “fighting for the ball”.

Professor Fraser is past Dean of Medical Sciences, UWI and Professor Emeritus of Medicine. Website:  profhenryfraser.com

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Henry S. Fraser: Things that delight me over and over!

Thierry Henry in Major League All-Star squad to face Roma

Sport

Monday, July 08, 2013

NEW YORK, USA (AFP) — French star Thierry Henry was among 10 players named yesterday as members of the Major League Soccer All-Stars squad that will face Italy’s AS Roma in the MLS All-Star Game on July 31 at Kansas City.Henry, a 35-year-old striker for New York who helped France to the 1998 World Cup, has six goals in 17 matches this year for the Red Bulls. He was a former Arsenal, Juventus and Barcelona standout before his 2010 US move.Peruvian goalkeeper Raul Fernandez of FC Dallas, Canadian national team midfielder Will Johnson, and French defender Aurelien Collin of Kansas City were the other non-US players voted into the lineup by MLS supporters.Chicago midfielder Mike Magee, who has 10 goals this season, was joined on the select squad by five fellow Americans from the US national team — San Jose forward Chris Wondolowski, Houston midfielder Brad Davis, Los Angeles defender Omar Gonzalez, and Kansas City’s midfielder Graham Zusi, and defender Matt Besler.MLS All-Star coach Peter Vermes and MLS commissioner Don Garber will select other players for the MLS lineup, with Vermes deciding which players are on the final 18-man game roster that will face the Serie A squad.

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Thierry Henry in Major League All-Star squad to face Roma

Govt policy caused toll rate hike, says Henry

Latest News

Monday, July 08, 2013 | 10:21 AM

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Former Transport and Works Minister, Mike Henry, has blamed the Government’s policies for last week’s hike in toll rates. Henry said that the increase was a direct result of the administration’s financial plans for the country, which are now inextricably linked to the recently signed agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).He added that all forms of road transportation rates will be subjected to annual increases over the next four years, with the Portmore community bearing the brunt of the increased costs, as “it is clear that the Government and the IMF have agreed that the Jamaican dollar is overvalued”.The Central Clarendon Member of Parliament (MP) noted that over its four and a half years in office, the former Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) administration approved only one toll increase. In contrast, the present administration has approved an increase after only a year in office. He said the JLP Government had renegotiated to an annual toll review, as against the bi-annual review that was established by the People’s National Party (PNP). Henry said the JLP, by keeping of the Jamaican dollar stable and fostering plans to diversify to a multi-modal transport plan, gave the pubic choices in terms of the economic cost to travel. For example, the passenger rail service was re-introduced with a plan to service the corridors between Gregory Park and Mandeville, and Gregory Park and Linstead, then into Kingston by 2014.Henry said as Transport Minister, he struck a genuine balance among the applicable factors to ensure that toll rates were only increased when absolutely necessary. He said that approach has shifted to one where “the commuting public, especially residents of Portmore who have been logistically exploited by the toll arrangements, have become like sitting ducks under the Government’s present approach.”The former minister said that while it was the right of the toll operator to seek increases at the applicable times, it was the prerogative of the Government when to grant such increases, bearing in mind all the factors relative to the toll rates. He said Government was about “being strong and in the best interest of the people; not being spineless and caving into every form of external pressure against the interest of the Jamaican people”.Like our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/jamaicaobserverFollow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamaicaObserver

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Govt policy caused toll rate hike, says Henry