标签： Jamaica

Age-gap relationships between older women and younger men remain a largely unspoken but widely experienced reality for women across the world — one that often sparks quiet curiosity, unvoiced anxiety, and unsolicited outside judgment. Certified life coach and women’s empowerment advocate Marie Berbick-Bailey, who once walked this path herself, draws on personal experience and decades of coaching work to lay out a clear, honest framework for women navigating this high-stakes decision. Years ago, Berbick-Bailey turned down a marriage proposal from a much younger man she shared deep spiritual and personal connection with. Though the pair clicked on multiple levels and felt clear physical chemistry, she walked away after recognizing a fundamental incompatibility: he wanted children, and she had already completed her family. Choosing to prioritize his right to the life he wanted, she made the difficult decision to end the relationship. Today, she guides other women facing a similar crossroads. Many women find themselves unexpectedly falling for a younger man: one who is kind, present, emotionally open, everything they have been looking for. But the discovery of a significant age gap immediately floods the relationship with unasked questions — and societal judgment never fails to insert itself into the dynamic, uninvited. Before allowing outside opinions, fear, or giddy excitement to dictate a decision to marry, Berbick-Bailey outlines five non-negotiable areas women must evaluate first. First, emotional maturity cannot be judged by chronological age. It is not uncommon to see older men act with childish impulsivity while younger men lead with a wisdom far beyond their years. The real question women need to answer is whether their partner can handle the hard edges of life: how does he respond to conflict, stress, and unplanned responsibility? Can he communicate openly during hardship, or does he shut down and withdraw? Marriage will always test a relationship, and a partner needs the emotional capacity to hold steady rather than collapse under pressure. Second, alignment on children is non-negotiable, a foundational pillar of any lasting marriage. Women must ask clear, direct questions early on: does he already have children? Does he want children in the future? If he does, what is his desired timeline for growing a family? For women who are past the childbearing stage biologically or emotionally, this conversation cannot be put off or brushed aside in the name of love. Too many women enter marriage assuming love will bridge this divide, only to find themselves trapped in a painful, irresolvable disagreement years down the line. Alignment on this issue is not a bonus — it is an absolute requirement. Third, financial stability and mindset matter for any partnership, especially when there is an age gap. It is reasonable for a younger man to still be building his career, but he must have clear direction rather than drifting through life. Women need to examine his relationship with money: does he budget, save, and invest for the future, or does he spend recklessly as if there is no need to plan for tomorrow? Marriage requires a true partnership, not a dynamic where one partner carries all the financial responsibility while the other remains dependent. Fourth, shared long-term vision is critical to avoiding future conflict. Women should ask their partners to outline concrete plans, not just vague dreams, for where they see themselves in five to 10 years: what are their career goals, lifestyle priorities, and personal development targets? After hearing his vision, women must honestly ask whether it aligns with their own. If one partner is ready for quiet stability and the other is still chasing new experiences and exploring different life paths, that gap will inevitably grow into tension over time. Love alone cannot sustain a relationship where two people are moving in opposite directions. Fifth, women must honestly assess their own ability to push back against societal perception and stand confident in their choice. It is impossible to ignore that people will comment: there will be whispers labeling the older woman a “cougar”, rude jokes about the age gap, and endless unsolicited advice from people who have no stake in the woman’s happiness. The problem is not the comments themselves — it is whether the woman feels secure enough in her own choice to ignore them. Constantly having to defend one’s relationship to outsiders is an exhausting burden that will erode even the strongest connection over time. One question women almost always want answered but rarely ask aloud is: how much younger is “too young”? Berbick-Bailey says there is no universal one-size-fits-all answer, but offers clear wisdom: the wider the age gap, the greater the need for full alignment on core values, emotional maturity, and current life stage. A five-year gap will create very different practical and social challenges than a 15-year gap, and women must evaluate not just where both partners are today, but where they will be in 10 and 20 years down the line. Berbick-Bailey’s final counsel is straightforward: do not let flattery or excitement push you into a decision you have not carefully considered. It is true that a younger man’s attention can feel refreshing: he often sees a woman’s value, celebrates her, and brings renewed energy to the relationship. But that thrill should never override a careful assessment of core compatibility. Marriage is not held together by physical attraction alone. It lasts because of alignment on core priorities, emotional maturity, shared values, and matching long-term vision. A younger man can absolutely be the right life partner — but only if he is truly ready to be a husband, not just caught up in the excitement of new love. Ultimately, women are encouraged to choose wisely, not just emotionally. Marie Berbick-Bailey is a certified master life coach, women’s transformational coach, ordained minister, author, and motivational speaker dedicated to empowering women to heal, thrive, and live out their personal purpose. She can be reached through her websites www.marieberbick.com and www.marieberbickcoach.com, or via email at marieberbick@gmail.com.

KINGSTON, Jamaica — In a public advisory issued this Monday, Jamaica’s National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) has reinforced longstanding legal protections for all wild duck populations across the island, reminding residents and visitors that harming, hunting, or trapping these birds is a criminal offense under national law. The official warning comes in response to verified, credible accounts of unregulated hunting and trapping activities documented across multiple Jamaican parishes, actions that NEPA confirms directly violate the island’s Wild Life Protection Act.

This piece of legislation extends full legal protection to every native bird species in Jamaica, encompassing not only all year-round resident duck populations but also migratory duck varieties that travel to the island on a seasonal basis. To clarify the scope of protections, NEPA outlines key differences between the two groups: resident species such as the vulnerable West Indian Whistling Duck (*Dendrocygna arborea*) live and breed within Jamaica’s borders year-round, while migratory species including the Blue-winged Teal (*Spatula discors*) and Ring-necked Duck (*Aythya collaris*) rely on Jamaica’s warm, resource-rich landscapes as a critical stopover and wintering habitat each year.

Jamaica’s expansive network of wetlands and inland waterways does more than support local waterfowl: these ecosystems serve as globally important conservation sites that underpin biodiversity across the Caribbean region and the broader Western Hemisphere. Illegal hunting of wild ducks, NEPA emphasizes, does not just threaten targeted waterfowl populations—it disrupts the delicate ecological balance of these critical habitats, putting the entire range of wildlife that depends on wetland ecosystems at risk.

In response to the recently reported incidents, the agency confirmed that it has already launched formal investigations to identify and prosecute individuals involved in the illegal activity. NEPA also issued a clear reminder of the steep penalties for violations of the Wild Life Protection Act: anyone convicted of hunting, trapping, or illegally possessing protected wild species including wild ducks can face fines as high as JMD $3 million.

To strengthen enforcement of these protections, NEPA is calling on the Jamaican public to become active partners in conservation. The agency is urging anyone with information about unreported illegal hunting activity to come forward and share details through multiple accessible channels. Tipsters can contact NEPA directly at 876-754-7540, reach the agency toll-free at 888-991-5005, or report incidents to local law enforcement via the national 119 emergency line or the nearest police station.

A devastating incident at a Colombian monster truck exhibition has left three people dead and more than 40 injured, after a performance vehicle veered off its designated track and crashed into a crowd of spectators on Sunday, local authorities confirmed Monday. Among the fatalities was 10-year-old Hellen Velarde, who had been attending the event in Popayan, a city in southwestern Colombia, as a special birthday treat.

Local media reports confirm a second minor girl and a young adult woman also lost their lives in the crush. Footage shared widely across social media platforms captures the vehicle lifting into a wheelie stunt before it swerved off course, smashing through the concrete barriers that were supposed to separate spectators from the driving track.

In the immediate aftermath of the collision, widespread chaos broke out as hundreds of attendees scrambled to escape the path of the out-of-control truck, pushing past one another to reach safer ground. The Popayan local fire department confirmed that more than 40 people were hurt in the incident, with several suffering life-threatening critical injuries. Multiple children are included among the wounded, local media has reported.

Hellen’s grandfather, Miller Velarde, harshly criticized event organizers for the lack of basic safety protocols, saying the exhibition operated with “practically no safety measures” — a failure he described as nothing short of a “crime.” Another of Velarde’s grandchildren remains in intensive care following emergency surgery to treat a severe head injury sustained in the crash.

Popayan Mayor Juan Carlos Munoz has launched a full official investigation into the tragedy, releasing a public statement saying the preventable disaster “should never have happened” and promising to hold any responsible parties accountable for the deaths and injuries. The incident has sparked widespread public anger across the country over inadequate event safety regulation.

ST JAMES, Jamaica — In a powerful display of community resilience and tribute to a beloved local figure, thousands of participants gathered along Howard Cooke Boulevard on Thursday morning for the annual event named in honor of Jill Stewart, the late wife of Sandals Group Executive Chairman Adam Stewart. This year’s gathering marked one of the largest turnouts in the event’s history, even coming just months after Hurricane Melissa left widespread destruction across the parish.

Aston Stewart, Jill and Adam Stewart’s son, was unable to compete in the run segment of the event this year due to a persistent, nagging knee injury. Even so, he joined the crowd by walking the full route alongside his father, sharing his joy at the event’s ongoing growth. “It’s great, very nice to see all the people that came and how it’s growing every year, we really appreciate it,” Aston told Jamaica’s Observer Online. “It really is a lot of fun, it’s good. It’s awesome to see it grow every year and I would definitely encourage more young people to join up.”

By the day before the event, registration numbers had already hit 9,500, with total attendees on the route surpassing 10,000, Adam Stewart told reporters. That marks a substantial jump from 2023, when the event drew 7,000 registered participants and roughly 10,000 total attendees. For Stewart, the massive turnout this year carries extra meaning, coming on the heels of the hurricane’s destructive impact on the region.

“Coming off the back of Hurricane Melissa, this is just a testimony that nothing can break us in Montego Bay or Jamaica,” Stewart said.

Jill Stewart, a trained educator, passed away in 2023 after a courageous multi-year battle with cancer. The annual event was created to honor her legacy, which centers on her two core passions: improving public health and expanding educational opportunity for Jamaicans. Stewart said the outpouring of community support for the gathering has left his entire family feeling humbled and grateful.

“The family and I are just overwhelmed by the love and the support, and her legacy continues to be inspiring to people through health and academics. She was a trained teacher, and those were her two passions and loves,” Stewart explained. “It’s overwhelming, I’ve never seen so many people on the road at one time.”

Stewart also extended public gratitude to all stakeholders who made the 2024 event possible, including lead organizer Janet Silvera and her full event team, the municipal government of Montego Bay, Mayor Richard Vernon, local law enforcement, and every volunteer and participant who turned out to carry forward Jill Stewart’s mission. Before her passing, Jill Stewart made headlines when she publicly celebrated her husband’s receipt of the Order of Distinction in the rank of Commander, a national honor recognizing Adam Stewart’s decades of outstanding service to Jamaica’s tourism and hospitality sector.

Last week, as students across Jamaica sat down to begin their high-stakes Primary Exit Profile (PEP) Grade 6 examinations, the parents, teachers and school administrators gathered to support them carried far more than just the usual worry about academic performance. Hanging over the moment was a deep, shared anxiety about what comes after the test: the transition to high school, amid a spate of well-publicized violent incidents that have shaken public confidence in campus safety.

Recent high-profile attacks have put school violence at the top of Jamaica’s public conversation. In one case, a student at Seaforth High was fatally stabbed by a peer following an off-campus dispute that escalated; in another, a graphic video showing Jamaica College students assaulting a classmate went viral across social media. Jamaica’s Ministry of Education has publicly condemned both events, reaffirming its long-held zero-tolerance policy for campus violence and restating its commitment to building and maintaining safe learning environments. But this official reassurance has done little to ease the fears of caregivers gearing up to send their children to secondary school.

On the opening morning of last Thursday’s PEP assessments, multiple parents and school leaders at Portmore primary schools, located in St Catherine, shared their concerns with the Jamaica Observer. Ongoing reports of violence have left them uneasy, they said, and many are now actively restructuring how they select high schools for their children: academic excellence is no longer the sole priority, with campus safety now weighing equally heavily in their decisions.

For 11-year-old Liam Richards, one of the sixth-graders preparing to move to high school, the anxiety is personal. He has already begun mentally preparing to navigate a campus plagued by bullying and violence, and he issued a direct plea to older students: end the violence to build safer learning spaces for incoming students. Speaking about his own approach, the quiet, unassuming student said he expects to adjust his personality to avoid becoming a target, toughening up to deter bullies. While guidance counselling has helped him understand that many bullies act out due to unaddressed personal trauma, he stressed that hardship never justifies harm. Instead of engaging in physical retaliation, he encouraged targeted students to fight back by reporting incidents to administrators and excelling academically.

Reverend Dr Alvin Bailey, chairman of the board at Kensington Primary, argued that the scope of the crisis is being deliberately understated. He called on high school leaders to stop hiding incidents to protect institutional reputations, saying transparency is the only way to implement meaningful, targeted interventions to curb violence. Bailey also highlighted a underreported dimension of the crisis: violence directed at teaching staff, an issue he said demands urgent, targeted action.

Official data obtained by the Sunday Observer from Jamaica’s National Children’s Registry, a division of the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA), paints a sobering picture of the scale of bullying in recent months. Between January 1 and March 26 of this year alone, 49 bullying incidents were officially recorded across the country: 22 in January, 11 in February, and 16 in March. Between January 2022 and January 2023, the Ministry of Education and Youth received 55 mandatory critical incident reports, the vast majority linked to campus violence. Of those 55 incidents, 35 occurred at high schools and 15 at primary schools, dispelling the myth that violence is exclusively a secondary school problem. The 2023 Jamaica Violence Against Children and Youth Survey (VACS) further underlined the scope of gang activity in schools: among school-attending children and youth aged 13 to 24, one in four females and one in three males reported knowing of active gang presence on their campus.

For Janice Richards, mother of a sixth-grade student with a seizure disorder that can be triggered by physical stress or attack, the crisis is a source of constant panic. She has already removed any high school with a documented history of violence from her shortlist of options, a choice she says is the only way to reduce her son’s risk of harm. “They always tell you that when you’re going into high school you are going to get roughed up, but I think nowadays these kids are taking it to a different level,” she told the Sunday Observer.

Mario-Lyn Anderson, a sixth-grade teacher at Greater Portmore Primary, confirmed that this shift in priority is widespread among parents at her school. “To some extent, parents are saying, ‘I don’t want my child to go to that school because of what I am seeing in the news or because of what I have known over the years,’ so with school selections parents were very careful in how they selected their schools,” she explained. Anderson also shares the widespread anxiety, noting that while some students are confident and able to defend themselves, many vulnerable, sheltered children face far greater risk as they transition. She also raised urgent questions about the lack of clear protocols for teachers facing violence from students, pointing out that educators are caught between conflicting expectations: if they walk away from an attack they are labeled weak, but if they defend themselves they face disciplinary action from school leaders or the ministry.

Many parents have turned to early character education as a first line of defense. Warren Walford, a member of Ascot Primary School’s Parent-Teacher Association and a parent of a PEP candidate, stressed that caregivers must instill strong values in children long before they reach high school, and build open lines of communication so children feel comfortable reporting problematic incidents. Parents Ricardo Duckett and Kemeshia Grant Swaby have already adopted this approach. Duckett, who leads a local youth group, hosts regular community events to encourage positive development, and teaches his son to refuse to bully others and to report bullying immediately to school leaders. For Grant Swaby, whose daughter attends Kensington Primary, her approach is rooted in faith; she says it is “heart-wrenching” to see the violence unfolding in Jamaican schools, but she relies on prayer to ease her anxiety as her daughter prepares to transition.

Kensington Primary Principal Christine Hamilton acknowledged that parents’ fears are well-founded, and noted that violence and bullying are not limited to high schools — they are increasingly present in primary education as well. Her school has prioritized early intervention, working closely with parents and teachers to identify behavioral challenges early, before students transition to secondary school. The school also hosts regular information sessions for parents to help them prepare their children for the social and safety challenges of high school.

Jamaican education officials have implemented a range of interventions to address the crisis. In October 2023, the Ministry of Education launched BullyProofJA, a national digital campaign designed to reduce bullying across schools and communities. The government’s Safety and Security Policy guides ongoing interventions, including counselling for at-risk students, development of campus emergency response plans, clear role assignment for students, parents and community stakeholders, and training in constructive conflict resolution. Under the national Safe Schools Programme, trained school resource officers are also assigned to campuses to address violence, truancy and antisocial behavior. Jamaica is also a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, whose Article 19 enshrines children’s right to protection from all forms of violence, and requires state parties to implement legislative and social measures to prevent abuse, support victims and build safe, inclusive learning environments.

Despite these official efforts, Bailey remains unconvinced that enough is being done at the high school level. “I’m not convinced that the high schools are doing all to contain and to eradicate violence out of the schools, because they are trying to protect their reputation and maybe their supporters, and because of that they hide the practices and the deviances that are taking place in the high schools, especially the negative practices,” he said. Bailey argued that the public only sees the “tip of the iceberg” of campus indiscipline, and that repeated incidents only prompt short-term, knee-jerk policy reactions rather than sustained, systemic change to address root causes. He stressed that lasting change will require full transparency and collective commitment from all education stakeholders to end the culture of hiding violent incidents.