Happy 2015! The kind folks at GrenadianConnection have decided to have different columnists share their thoughts occasionally, so welcome to my first time giving my two cents, although these days with how the world economy is going it could be worth a little more. Maybe some of what I’ll comment on will be about what’s going on where I am in the Big Apple, and maybe some of it will focus on things back home in the Caribbean. Or it could be random thoughts on mankind (and womankind) and where we are headed. How regular this column will appear will depend on the goodwill of The Powers That Be (aka Team GC). In the news now it’s all about rights: civil rights, human rights, gay rights, reproductive rights, voting rights, the right to freedom of expression, the right to protest, even the right wing takeover of Congress and the Senate in the U.S. I’ve always had a problem with direction—when to go left and when to go right, so I’m forever being redirected. GPS sometimes helps me find my way, but often it seems to me you can end up back where you started: lost. The U.S. is ready to normalize relations with Cuba, creating big drama when President Obama made the announcement before Christmas. Cuba has now released some 53 political prisoners as part of the deal. Of course, there are the critics who say Washington hasn’t pressed the Cuban government enough on human rights issues. These are the same people who are strongly against the recent protests for civil rights in their own country and are busy supporting what others see as injustice in the cases of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. Is it a case of do as I say, not as I do? China’s presence in the Caribbean seems to be growing stronger every day, so much so that there was a meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) held in Beijing January 8 to 9. I’m sure none of the representatives of the 33 member states asked Chinese officials about that country’s human rights record. Money talks once again? There was worldwide horror at the murder of those journalists and other citizens in Paris. Their right to free speech (and life) was taken away by radicals. Do these fiends really believe they have the right to decide who lives and who dies? Who gave them that right? Hackers (and some governments) feel we have no right to privacy in our e-mails and that they can tell us what movies we can watch. The producers of the controversial movie in question felt they had the right to make a film about a sitting world leader, regardless of how tasteful it was. A high school in Barbados thinks it has the right to tell students they can’t wear natural hairstyles, calling the “twist-out” style that’s so common these days inappropriate for school. Gun nuts feel they have to right to bear arms and don’t care what anyone else thinks, regardless of the fact that gun violence is a scourge on humanity. People online consider it their right to tear you apart just because they don’t like the color of your skin or where you come from or what you sound like. I could go on and on. These are some of the rights I want in 2015: -The right to not have to listen to the song playing in your headphones that somehow I can still hear from all the way on the other side of the train. -The right not to see your underwear because you chose some silly style that has your pants falling to your knees. -The right to take my time to decide what I want at the patty shop without you sighing behind me or tapping your foot. -The right to know my child's password so I can monitor who she's talking to online if necessary. -The right to start my workout program slowly. If I can only do 20 minutes of exercise don’t tell me what the experts say I should do. -The right to not hear your conversation as you shout in your cell phone on the bus. -The right to stress less about the things that don’t really matter. I’d rather spend my time focusing on the things that are important, like my family and their well-being. Peter Tosh sang about equal rights and justice and it seems to me that his words are just as relevant today as they were back then. The big issue is who’s to say what is right and what is wrong. I guess we won’t really be sure until the Man (or Woman) upstairs lets us know. One love, Miss F.