Jamaican Till I Die!

By - Barbara Sewell-Bode Tourist Country' from a Tourist Point of View Let me start by telling you a little bit about myself. I am a 40 year old Dutch (white) woman who is single, no kids and a fairly good job in finance. A few years ago I met a Jamaican man who worked in the same building as me and I fell in love with him, Jamaican food, reggae music, track & field and Appleton rum. The relationship did not last, but my love for everything Jamaican remained and I still make a mean ‘yellow soup' with chicken, cho cho, pumpkin, carrot, sweet potato, thyme, scallion and more scotch bonnet pepper than you would expect a white girl to be able to handle. The only reason yellow yam is missing is that I can hardly get it in Amsterdam. Because of my love for everything Jamaican, it is only natural that I like to spend my holidays in Jamaica. I can try to incorporate as much of Jamaica as I can in my own home but I cannot get the sun, the beautiful nature, the people and t

By Torsdag ©  ©  inmyownwords A friend recently sent me pictures of Andrew Holness’ house being built in Beverly Hills. Looking at the pictures brought several things to mind; some good, some indifferent, some bad. What it did remind me of, from an architectural standpoint, is an article I read that addresses the trickle-down theory of architecture written by Professor Witold Rybcyzynski. My thoughts prompted me to muse upon this said trickle-down theory of architecture as it pertains to the Jamaican house and what passes nowadays for Jamaican architecture. The fascination with the architecture of wealth and privilege still reigns supreme in our psyche. Though this is nothing new or specific to Jamaica, the way in which we classify and embody this notion, is. It is developed mainly through voyeurism: what we see on TV, the internet, social media, word of mouth and of course, what we – see. The big house on the hill was always, at least in my brief lifetime, something to as

The Butufication of Kingston and St. Andrew Forget Goat Island because it is Kingston and St. Andrew that is in great need of environmental help. Kingston and St. Andrew is beginning to look like a concrete townhouse congested Jungle and I wonder why the Environmental Groups are going crazy over Goat Island, predicting Environmental doom but are completely silent on the destruction of Kingston and St. Andrew at the hands of unscrupulous developers. Every piece of empty land in and around Kingston and St. Andrew is being converted into some tacky over the top Florida style townhouse complex compound with big tacky slow moving electric gates bigger than Gods own pearly Gates. This to me is a catastrophic environmental disaster because where there was once a nice house in a big lovely green yard or a nice piece of open land, full of trees, birds, various wildlife and a flourishing eco-system, now sits a tacky looking oversize hideous townhouse complex that is almost invading the blast