Jamaican Till I Die!

So now I am going through the new Government’s Manifestos, 63 pages of Empty Promises and Lies, trying to create a spreadsheet of each promise, date promised made and expected delivery by date. To me a due date is a commitment, like a promissory note, “I promise to pay the bearer”, I promise to have this completed by the following date if you vote for me. I realized that the manifestos of Political Parties was never design to be a commitment but a open ended promises, a carrot on a stick to gullible idiots fool enough to believe it, if they make 100 promises then they may deliver about 5 and when an election comes around that is the only thing they talk about, those 5 promises they delivered. We have reached the stage now that a manifesto should be a contract with the people, an appraisal document with expected delivery dates, signed on the day the party takes over the Government of the country. How it stands now this is a worthless piece of document, constructed by speech writers and...

...........Breakboy Nrg In the time of Julius Caesar, December 25th was the date of the winter solstice. In the northern hemisphere, on the winter solstice the sun reaches its lowest point on the horizon, creating the shortest day and longest night. The pagans of the time celebrated the winter solstice as the Unconquered Sun. After this day, the days begin to get longer, the weather gets warmer and spring approaches; and so it represents the Sun (light) winning the battle over darkness. There would be feasts, and all types of other celebrations to pay tribute to the Sun. In the fourth century, the Christians shifted Christmas Day to the day of the Unconquered Sun. In Jamaica today, as in most other parts of the world, the mention of Christmas conjures up many images for us all; the Christmas tree and the abundance of nicely wrapped presents. Christ’s birthday, Singing Christmas carols, getting off from work and school and getting together with family and friends. But,...

When I am here When I am here , nothing else seems to matter, nothing else seems important when I am sitting here in this chair. When I am here , My stress is over there, somewhere, anywhere but here. Beyond the horizon, in a land far, far away, just stories on the evening news.  When I am here in the mornings, all I need is a nice cup of Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee, while watching the sunrise over the horizon. Listening to the sound of the sea, watching the gentle rippling motion of the waves as it slowly makes its way towards the white sandy shores. Enjoying nature as I watched birds eat a ripe mango that had fallen to the ground. When I am here , at midday after lunch, there is nothing like a cold Red Stripe beer while sitting here, ...yes here, right here, in this chair and When I am here, in the evenings, there is nothing like a glass of Appleton Estate 21 Year Old Rum served neat while watching the magical Caribbean Sunset. Feeling the cool tropical...

I was just on a messaging board and a discussion about world affairs came up and America was mentioned, everyone had their own opinions and expressed them, no malice, everyone was just trying to lay down some facts and logic. However there is a certain type of Jamaican (or Use-To-Be-Jamaican) who takes extra exception to anyone who has an open and objective opinion about America. If you are not singing their praises then you are ungrateful wretches as they proclaimed that we are biting the hands that feed us, just because people express their opinion. Now this speaks volume to me, it defines how some Jamaicans think of themselves and their country, he declared that we get a lot of American tourist so we are being fed, in other words we are being taken care of by the goodness of their hearts and as such should not have anything critical to say. Every other country engages in trade and business with America, they however are not being fed, they are seen as partners in Busine...

A public relation company came to Jamaica back in the late 70’s and performed an experiment, they invited some ladies to look at two sets of brassieres, one set marked made in Jamaica and the other set marked made in the United States. All the individuals taking part came to the same unanimous decision that the Bras marked made in the United States was of better quality, hands down, they went into details, showing superior stitching work, the professional quality of the bras that was made in the United States as oppose to those made in Jamaica, which they said was poor workmanship and lower quality, not good value for money and will not last long. No matter how many time they switch the labels between the Bras, the one with the label always wins.  At the end of the showing when all votes were cast, they were then told that the labels on the brassieres had been switched and that the ones marked made in the United States was in fact made in Jamaica and those labeled made in Jamai...

Election time is a time when it becomes almost impossible to reason with the Jamaican people. When logic no longer exist, election is like a fever that affects the brains of the people, turning them into political zombies. These zombified people have one intention, to eliminate and consume their political opponent. Like boxers the people retreat to the opposing corners while eyeballing their opponents, smacking their gloves together, waiting for the bell to ring so they can engage and rain punishment down on them in the name of the party. During the Election period the Jamaican people only eat, sleep and think in two colours, Green and Orange. They care nothing about the country just the party, for the glory of the party, as if they benefit when any of these parties are in power. The other day I was having a conversation with a friend and he started talking about Bruce Golding’s Legacy and I remembered an article I wrote in 2006 when the Jamaican media was going crazy about t...

I recently came across a Jamaica travel video done by voyagetv.com called Hands-On History .  It features Bellefield Great House, Montego Bay.   Not one to pass up anything to do with great houses, one of my favourite archetypes, I settled down to watch the little 7-minute flick.   Sepia hued Bellefield Great House coutesy of Voyage TV To the beat of African kette drums a disembodied voice says: “It really is a step back in time, you know, in the heyday of our sugar production.   So, you know, that’s kind of what we try to do here: take people back in time, you know, to 1805 before the abolition of slavery when Jamaica was a really special place….” !!! “Special  place” FOR WHOM??? Ms Rousseau, owner of the disembodied voice, takes Voyage TV’s host and the viewer on a tour of the Great House and the sugar mill whilst bringing us up-to-date on the illustrious history of the Karr-Jarrett family; all to the sounds of a Rastafarian ch...