Evidence of merit and prayers answered
So National Heroes’ Day this year will be this coming Monday. As usual, those awarded national honours will receive their insignia from the Governor General. It reminds me of the merits and demerits system that many high schools have and was in existence during my first year at Jamaica College between 1964 and 1965. But merits and demerits, whether in schools or elsewhere, are sometimes awarded unfairly. Many times I ask what some people did to receive Jamaican national honours. In other words, where is the evidence?
Over the years, we have heard many words about unsung heroes who should have been awarded honours and awards but were passed over while others less worthy have been given honours. While I know and appreciate that National Heroes’ Day exists to honour Jamaicans, I can think of two Englishmen who are seldom mentioned that should be honoured posthumously.
One is the late Archdeacon William Simms, former headmaster of Jamaica College. Simms was an Anglican clergyman who used his tremendous influence to defend the Roman Catholic Church in 1901. The English colonial overlords and the Church of England wanted to force the Anglican doctrine of his church on Roman Catholics in Jamaica. It was Archdeacon Simms who influenced the church and State authorities to leave the Roman Catholic Church alone.
Also, Archdeacon Simms gave important evidence in one of the cases in court after the 1907 earthquake. He was at a meeting at Mico Teachers’ College on Marescaux Road when the earthquake happened. From Mico he saw that the fire started before the earthquake. Most merchants based in Kingston in 1907 were not insured against earthquakes, as the previous quake was 25 years before in 1882. When the merchants claimed insurance for fire they were told that the earthquake caused the fire and were denied their claims. So they had to prove that the fire started before the earthquake. They fought through the courts to get their insurance claims from the then existing insurance companies, most if not all of which were foreign-based.
The other Englishman who is an unsung hero was Captain John Little. It was he more than anyone else whose evidence caused the court to rule in favour of the merchants. Little was subpoenaed to give evidence that he was sailing in Kingston Harbour when he saw fire coming from the vicinity of Kingston Parish Church. As a result of John Little’s testimony, the merchants won their cases and the insurance companies had to fork out 600,000 pounds, the equivalent of billions of Jamaican dollars today. The owner of the boat Port of Kingston, of which John Little was captain, was the late Sir Alfred Smith, who evidently was a large shareholder in one or more insurance companies.
Smith reprimanded Little for his role in the defeat of the insurance companies in court, despite having been subpoenaed and therefore had no choice. The next time that cargo was damaged by handling mistakes became the excuse for Sir Alfred Smith to dismiss Little. I am grateful to attorney Paul Levy, author of The Great Case, for this information.
Given the fact that the free market economy was even more in vogue than today, had the merchants not received their insurance claims the entire economy of Jamaica would have been ruined, complete with implications for unemployment. Indeed, had the merchants not received their insurance claims, Jamaica might have been in a similar position to Haiti. However, the same merchants who united for their own insurance claims in 1907 did everything to oppose the peasant workers, 31 years later in 1938, when they demanded more pay.
PRAYERS ANSWERED
With regard to evidence of answered prayers, the Roman Catholic Church relies very heavily on witnesses and evidence in determining miracles and whether someone is worthy of sainthood. We hear a lot about the prayers that went up as Hurricane Matthew threatened Jamaica. Some people claim that it was solely their prayers that caused Matthew to turn away from Jamaica. While I believe in prayer, and that all prayers are efficacious, the Roman Catholic Church, at least, has hard evidence.
In 1953, two years after Hurricane Charlie hit Jamaica in 1951, Jamaica was dedicated by the Roman Catholic Church to the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Since that time, yearly prayers for such protection are said, even if no type of disaster looms. The full effects of only one cyclone, Hurricane Gilbert, has hit Jamaica in the last 65 years. How is that for evidence?
Last week many, including Roman Catholic Archbishop Kenneth Richards, asked that while many wanted Hurricane Matthew to swerve away, would they want it to hit Haiti, which had several misfortunes? He was speaking on the last day of the Tridium for St Theresa of Lisieux (a doctor of the church) at St Theresa’s Roman Catholic Church in Vineyard Town on Saturday, October 1.
Why then did the hurricane hit Haiti since they are reportedly better behaved that many Jamaicans, and for the most part baptised Roman Catholics. That is a reasonable question which no one can adequately explain since we cannot fully comprehend God’s ways.
But was Haiti ever dedicated to the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary? Was Cuba or The Bahamas? Was Florida or Texas? However, from now on, we should all pray that hurricanes dissipate into needed rain, instead of swerving and hitting other countries.
I understand that the late John Maxwell wrote about the Blue Mountains and the buffer that it provides to keep hurricanes away from hitting Jamaica. While that might be scientifically true, Jamaica has had many hurricanes over the previous centuries nevertheless. Why didn’t the Blue Mountains buffer them?
And you Christians of other denominations should join us Roman Catholics in asking the Blessed Virgin Mary for protection, especially in light of the evidence of only one full hurricane in 65 years and in 63 years of Roman Catholics asking for such protection.
ekrubm765@yahoo.com