Caribbean News
Junior Mayor wants Jamaicans to invest more in Health and Wellness
#Jamaica, December 28, 2017 – Kingston – Recently appointed Junior Mayor for the Portmore Municipality, Sherissa Pinnock, is advocating for Jamaicans to invest more in health, wellness and herb gardening, which she believes will allow persons to live longer and healthier lives.
It is for this reason, Sherissa, a 15-year-old student of The Cedar Grove Academy, in Portmore, St. Catherine, wants to start herb and wellness gardens in schools with some of the $500,000 funding she will get to undertake projects to uplift the Portmore Municipality as Junior Mayor.
“I believe it [herb gardening] will bring people together when they plant, to engage in agriculture and watch it flourish. I do agriculture at my school, so we learnt a little on that, and I plan to get some more experience and some more advice on how to do that,” Sherissa told JIS News, after calling on Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, at Jamaica House, along with other Junior Mayors from across the island, recently.
The first two herb and wellness gardens she hopes to establish as Junior Mayor will be at her alma mater, Bridgeport Primary School; and her current school, The Cedar Grove Academy. “I also plan to paint the Bridgeport Primary School,” she said.
In addition to her plans for Bridgeport Primary, she is also exploring ways to assist in other areas. Sherissa was born with the birth defect called Amelia (absence of one or more limbs), which affects her left arm. Despite this challenge, Sherissa is determined to achieve greatness.
She told JIS News that persons who are born with Amelia are oftentimes discouraged from engaging in youth leadership positions, as they are teased; but she is not daunted. Sherissa said her situation has encouraged her to achieve, just as others her age who are blessed with having both hands and all 10 fingers.
“Fortunately, I have never gone through any major setback in my life, apart from my arm. Other than that, I have been having a good life,” she said.
Sherissa said she is always supported by her parents, Wilbo and Jacqueline Pinnock, and her sister, Sahara Pinnock.
The Junior Mayor said her goal is to make a major difference in Portmore, and she strongly believes she has the ability to do so.
“I realise that I could influence a lot of people and a lot of my peers, and I heard about the project [of becoming Junior Mayor]. I thought that it would be a good idea, and I think it would really give me a lot of experience,” Sherissa told JIS News, as she gave her reason for applying to become the Junior Mayor of the Portmore Municipality.
Given the new perspective life has introduced to her from being appointed Junior Mayor, Sherissa, who is a grade-10 student on the verge of sitting the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination, is a little uncertain of the career she intends to pursue.
“Nothing is set in stone… . I am looking at becoming an actuary or doing something in the economics field,” she said.
Sherissa was the top girl at her alma mater for the Grade Six Achievement Test [GSAT], and she is among the top performers at her current school.
By: Ainsworth Morris (JIS)
By Deandrea Hamilton | Magnetic Media
October 14, 2025 – It’s being called political theatre — but for citizens, constitutional watchdogs, and democracy advocates across the Caribbean, it feels far more serious. Within a single week, two national parliaments — in Trinidad and Tobago and St. Kitts and Nevis — descended into turmoil as opposition members stormed out in protest, accusing their Speakers of bias, overreach, and abuse of parliamentary procedure.
For observers, the walkouts signal a deeper problem: erosion of trust in the very institutions meant to safeguard democracy. When Speakers are viewed as political enforcers instead of neutral referees, parliaments stop functioning as chambers of debate and start performing as stages for power and spectacle — with citizens left wondering who, if anyone, is still accountable.
October 6: St. Kitts Parliament Erupts
The first walkout erupted in Basseterre on October 6, 2025, when Dr. Timothy Harris, former Prime Minister and now Opposition Leader,
led his team out of the St. Kitts and Nevis National Assembly in a protest that stunned the chamber.
The flashpoint came as the Speaker moved to approve more than three years’ worth of unratified parliamentary minutes in one sitting — covering 27 meetings and three national budgets — without individual review or debate.
Dr. Harris called the move “a flagrant breach of the Constitution and parliamentary tradition,” warning that the practice undermines transparency and accountability. “No serious parliament can go years without approving a single set of minutes,” he said after exiting the chamber.
The Speaker defended the decision as administrative housekeeping, but critics were unconvinced, branding the move a “world record disgrace.” The opposition’s walkout triggered renewed calls for the Speaker’s resignation and sparked a wider public discussion about record-keeping, accountability, and respect for parliamentary norms in St. Kitts and Nevis.
October 10: Trinidad Opposition Follows Suit
Four days later, on October 10, 2025, the Opposition United National Congress (UNC) in Trinidad and Tobago staged its own walkout from the House of Representatives in Port of Spain.
The UNC accused the Speaker of partisan bias, claiming she had repeatedly blocked urgent questions, ignored points of order, and allowed government members to breach standing orders without consequence.
“The Speaker has failed in her duty to act impartially,” the Opposition declared in a statement. “Parliament is not the property of any political party or Presiding Officer.”
The dramatic exit was seen as a culmination of months of rising tension and frustration, with opposition MPs arguing that parliamentary rules were being selectively applied to silence dissenting voices.
Political analyst Dr. Marcia Ferdinand described the twin walkouts as “a warning sign that parliamentary democracy in the Caribbean is teetering on the edge of performative politics.”
“When chairs become political shields rather than constitutional referees,” she said, “democracy becomes theatre, not governance.”
A Pattern Emerging
While St. Kitts and Trinidad are very different political environments, both incidents point to the same regional fault line: the perception that Speakers — the guardians of parliamentary order — are no longer impartial.
In Westminster-style systems like those across the Caribbean, the Speaker’s authority depends not on power but on public confidence in fairness. Once that credibility erodes, parliamentary control collapses into confrontation.
Governance experts say the implications are serious: eroded trust between government and opposition, declining public confidence in state institutions, and growing voter cynicism that “rules” are flexible tools of political advantage.
Why It Matters
Parliamentary walkouts are not new in the Caribbean, but what makes these recent events different is their frequency and intensity — and
the regional echo they’ve created. Social media has amplified images of lawmakers storming out, with citizens from Barbados to Belize questioning whether the same erosion of decorum could be happening in their own legislatures.
Analysts warn that if this perception takes hold, it risks diminishing the moral authority of parliamentary democracy itself.
“Once opposition MPs believe the rules are rigged, and once citizens believe Parliament is just performance,” said one Caribbean governance researcher, “you’ve lost the most valuable currency in democracy — trust.”
Restoring Balance
Political reformers across the region are calling for tighter Standing Order enforcement, independent parliamentary service commissions, and training to strengthen Speaker neutrality. Civil society leaders say the public must also play its part by demanding transparency and refusing to normalize partisan manipulation of parliamentary procedure.
Whether these twin walkouts become catalysts for reform — or simply another episode of Caribbean political theatre — will depend on what happens next inside those chambers.
For now, democracy watchers agree on one thing: when opposition leaders feel the only way to be heard is to walk out, the entire democratic house — not just its Speaker — is in danger of collapse.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
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