Olympic vibe grips London

While anticipating the grand
August celebrations of Jamaica's golden jubilee in a few days' time,
our focus is also on the London Olympic Games where our ace athletes are
expected to shine.

Jamaicans in the diaspora are nonetheless
excited. Teams of Jamaican vacationers and journalists are now in London
soaking up the Olympic vibe and welcoming the team with open arms.

And so today, we highlight Jamaica's new high commissioner to London, Aloun Assamba, who landed in the thick of things.

She
was best known as the head of the City of Kingston Co-operative Credit
Union. It was a post in which she served with distinction before being
called by the then president of the People's National Party (PNP), P.J.
Patterson, to serve her country.

Venturing into representational
politics, she earned renewed respect from her friends and colleagues in
the private sector. They saw it as a financial sacrifice.

But
being raised to place a premium on service to others, Assamba saw the
move not as a sacrifice, but as an opportunity to serve her country.

During
her stint in government, she served as minister of tourism, earning the
respect and admiration of the players in the tourism and hospitality
sector, as she sought to chart a new course and path for the country's
tourism product and the workers in the industry.

She opted to
leave representational politics after deciding she could serve better
elsewhere, and went back to the practice of law. But she remained close
to the political platform and actively helped in the PNP's campaign in
the 2011 general election. She was appointed to the Court of St James as
Jamaica's high commissioner to London early this year, and her official
duties began in May.

• 10 things you didn't know about Aloun Assamba

Here are 10 things you may not have know about our new high commissioner.

1. Was born in Spanish Town, but grew up in Moneague, St Ann. She moved to Kingston at the age of 13. However, she fell in love with the beauty of the parish of St Ann, and as soon as she could, she returned home to St Ann.

2. She attended three high schools. She was successful in the Common Entrance Examination and earned a place at Ferncourt High School. But when her family relocated to Kingston, she transferred to Merl Grove High School and left in fifth form and moved on to Covent of Mercy Alpha for sixth form.

3. Her legal colleagues still recall the days when she was accident-prone. She fell down the steps to the Master's Chambers at the Supreme Court when she was a young lawyer and fractured her coccyx. She has fallen and sprained both ankles at least twice, causing friends and family to refer to her as 'Dropsy'!

4. Loves swimming, which is her preferred form of exercise.

5. She keeps friends for life and has friends from her 'Ting Ting' days in Moneague, where she went to infant school. She frequently has reunions with school friends wherever they are. Since her arrival in London, she has already scheduled a reunion of old school friends currently in London.

6. Enjoys dancing and has danced with Britain's most famous dance host and entertainer, Sir Bruce Forsythe!

7. Loves to be onstage and has been for many years, in one form or the other. She has been an active supporter/performer of the charity Powerful Women Perform for Charity since its inception. She is missing the annual charity event for the first time due to her current assignment.

8. Was a speech pupil of the late Trevor Rhone while at Merl Grove High School, and was taught drama by Pat Gooden at Convent of Mercy Academy.

9. Was accepted by the University of the West Indies for the Faculty of Agriculture, but took a sabbatical from her studies and volunteer at the Kingston Legal Aid Clinic, a decision which directed her to the career path of law.

10 The eldest of eight children, four boys and four girls by her parents, James and Gloria Wood, and has an older sister by her father before he married her mother. The family is very close and people who know one sibling usually get to know the others and, by extension, become family friends!