My heart breaks over Category 4 Hurricane Matthew鈥檚 slamming of Haiti, Jamaica and Cuba.
When Hurricane Sandy struck New York City where I live, our entire neighbourhood was destroyed 鈥 every single house was uninhabitable.
Jamaica
The Bob Marley songbook is bursting with eloquent social protest, exposing the poverty, oppression and injustice endured by inhabitants of the 鈥渄eveloping鈥 world. 鈥淏urning and Looting鈥, for example: 鈥淭his morning I woke up in a curfew. O my God I was a prisoner too 鈥 Could not recognise the faces standing over me, they were all dressed in uniforms of brutality.鈥
When police in Jamaica launched a bloody assault in May on poor neighbourhoods in the country鈥檚 capital city, news outlets in Canada responded with an ignorance and insensitivity that is all too common in their coverage of the Caribbean islands. As with Haiti, Jamaica is portrayed as incomprehensibly violent and not quite civilised.