Book Review…Treasures of a Nation

Mar 22, 2020 Book Review…, News

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Book: Jamaica’s Gifts to the World (Volume 2)
Author: Lloyd Eubank-Green
Critic: Glenville Ashby, PhD

Lloyd Eubank-Green’s ‘Jamaica’s Gifts to the World,’ is concisely and punctiliously delivered. While included in this roster are legendary figures, such as Jimmy Cliff, Courtney Walsh and Michael Norman Manley, others are hardly household names; still their Herculean accomplishments cannot be ignored.

Foundational to Eubank-Green’s work is the incontrovertible excellence of its honorees, each recognized, their worth showcased in education, politics, sports, education, law, medicine, engineering, literature, and the arts; each equally impressive. Choosing one over the other is a futile exercise. Indeed, this is an illustrious, exhaustive field.
In this monumental tribute to Jamaica, the writer delivers the first salvo with the prodigiously erudite Peter Blair Henry, dean of economics at New York University, who has the distinction of serving on President Barack Obama’s transition team that reviewed the role of international economic bodies including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Etched in the annals of great Jamaicans is the inimitable sociologist Horace Orlando Patterson, an intellectual that penned seminal works, in particular, ‘The Sociology of Slavery,’ ‘Slavery and Social Debt’ and ‘Freedom and the Making of Western Culture.’
Overtime, athletic excellence has defined Jamaica, surpassing bigger countries that have injected immeasurable resources to their sports industry. Jamaican athletes, though, have persevered, astounding the world and winning the admiration of a global audience. The gargantuan feats of Olympian Shelley-Ann Fraser Pryce are renowned and she deservedly earns a place in this book. “Shelly-Ann,” we learn, “is proud to acknowledge that she came from one of Kingston’s less affluent communities and attributes her success to hard work, clean living, and remaining focused on her goals,” and “she has used her success to create her own charitable foundation which works with other local organizations to assist young people with talent.”
Notable in the field of entrepreneurship is Raymond Chang who “has used his privately owned company, G. Raymond Chang Ltd. to pursue numerous enterprises, including the development of hydrogen fuel cells, medical diagnostic devices and equipment, wireless networks and the manufacturing and distribution of packaging material and investment and finance.”
And equally distinguishable is Glen Christian, Chairman and founder of Cari-Med and Kirk Distributors, who emerged from “the obscurity of deep rural Jamaica, [rising] to the pinnacle of business success and achievement through grit, sweat and tears.”
In the creative arts, there is no brighter star than Olive Senior who has contributed to writing programmes at the University of Toronto, St. Lawrence University, and Bernard College, Columbia University in New York. The University of the West Indies has also benefitted from her work.
In music, the late Peter is extolled, not only for his immense musical talent but for his revolutionary position against apartheid that was immortalized in his song, ‘Equal Rights.’
The ascension of Portia Lucretia Simpson-Miller to the highest political office is deservedly noted and being the first and only woman to have attained this feat is laudable and inspirational.
In offering a divers tapestry of immensely gifted personages, readers, especially young men and woman, will reshape their view of their culture, their nation and themselves. Eubank-Green’s work is no doubt a boon for the young mind.
Mention of every personage lauded by the author is impractical, but every story is worth telling.
The author’s spirited account of accomplished Jamaicans is testament to an exceptional nation of no more than three million people, a people that over centuries have proven to be resourceful and tenacious. The intrepidity of the Jamaican is arguably their signature characteristic, and it has served them well.
‘The proof of the pudding is in the eating,’ according to one famous dictum. Surely, Jamaicans have risen to every occasion; their global contribution indisputable.
Eubank-Green’s compilation of Jamaica’s best proves that much.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper)

Feedback: [email protected] or follow him on Twitter@glenvilleashby
Jamaica’s Gifts to the World (Volume 2) by Lloyd Eubank-Green
(C) 2019 Lloyd Eubank-Green
Publisher: Ian Randle Publishers, Kingston
ISBN: 978-976-637-886-8
Available at Amazon
Ratings: Highly recommended

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