Jamaican Till I Die!

In 2023 , Jamaica imported goods worth approximately $3.13 Billion from the United States, accounting for 41% of its total imports. In 2023, Jamaica's total exports to the United States amounted to $709 Million. In 2023 Jamaica’s Balance of Trade with the USA was Negative US$2.4 billion. That is what Jamaica pumped into the US economy in 2023. For the period of January to November 2024 , Jamaica's total imports from the United States were valued at US$6.7 billion. In 2024, Jamaica's total exports to the United States were valued at $376.34 million. In 2024 Jamaica’s Balance of Trade with the USA was Negative US$6.32366 billion. That is the amount Jamaica pumped into the US economy! Jamaica consistently runs a large balance of trade deficit with the USA. But the USA still placed 10% tariff on Jamaica’s small exports to the USA. The USA is punishing Jamaica even though we send billions to the USA every year, 20% at times over 30% of our GDP! This Continued Balance of Trad...

 I loved this article so much that I copy and paste the entire thing, not trusting the Gleaner to retain it.  Dennis Minott | Aggressive shallowness: threat to Jamaica’s future Published:Sunday | October 20, 2024 | 12:07 AM Dennis Minott writes: Aggressive shallowness thrives in spaces where appearance, image, and instant gratification dominate. In Jamaica, this is starkly evident in the world of reggae and dancehall music, which has long been a powerful medium for social commentary and resistance. In 2024, Jamaica finds itself gripped by a cultural affliction that has grown more pronounced: aggressive shallowness. This phenomenon, which prizes style over substance, has seeped into the core of Jamaican society, shaping politics, education, popular culture, and even business. No longer content with being merely superficial, this shallowness has taken on an aggressive edge, pushing aside meaningful discourse and critical thought in favour of loud, empty posturing. It is a danger...

At around 2007-2008, the rate of police shootings in Jamaica was high. Jamaicans expressed outrage and demanded police accountability and oversight to protect the poor ghetto youths. As a result, the Government of the day created INDECOM by 2010. However, every time there is a police shooting and INDECOM declared they will investigate that shooting, Jamaicans went ballistic calling for an end to INDECOM, who they accused of loving criminals. With questions asked why INDECOM never say anything when ghetto youths shoot up innocent people. Even though INDECOM was not created for that purpose, only to investigate police shootings. At a time when political corruption was running rampant, and the public started losing faith in their elected officials. The Government created an oversight commission called The Integrity Commission (IC) to make sure our elected officials keep their hands out of the public’s purse and are not using their position of power to enrich themselves. Everything was fi...

I have never supported and will never support the take over and control of our Parliament by family members. On principle having too many family members in Parliament undermines our democracy.  There are valid reasons why some corporations have a policy against family members working in the same company. We need legislation in Parliament to prevent a family-controlled parliament, where the nation’s business is being run from the dining rooms and bedrooms of families. Having that many families in parliament, dividing up the power structure among themselves sets a bad precedence and opens the door for corruption.  One must continue to question if the families are making decisions in the Nations interest or in the family’s interest because members of our political class are consumed by greed and their own self-importance. Having a family run government is Monarchial or Feudal in nature, where the family makes decisions in the best interest of the family and then try to convince u...

If this was a White World Order Project Everyone would be smiling with Glee! I noticed when the Europeans and Americans are bulldozing our lovely countryside to build their god-awful, tacky, generic one-dimensional All-Inclusive Hotels that extracts 80% of the profits, or bulldoze the natural world to extract bauxite, everyone is quiet, everyone looks the other way or smile with pride. Oh they love us, the white western world order love us and most people feel this way because they are colonially conditioned and stewed to subjugated perfection.  The White World Order have free access to Bulldoze, Build and Fence off Jamaica! If Jamaica wants more tourists, do more trees have to go? But when the Chinese going to build, all hell breaks loose. It is this bias hypocrisy that gets to me. I remember the mass movement against Goat Island which I supported. After which I watched the war on the environment in Kingston and St. Andrew and the countryside, as every piece of land and beach fron...

Election Map 2020 I am not a diehard supporter of any political party. What I am is a diehard supporter of progressive ideology, but Progressive ideology does not exist in Jamaica today. As such, the party that gets my vote is based on a formula that only takes into consideration certain social and economic indicators. These indicators were investigated and evaluated by me. +3 points will be awarded for any indicator that improved. -3 points will be deducted from any indicator that declined and +1 point awarded for any indicator that stayed the same. I was thinking of weighted points (+-4) for indicators I consider more important, like crime, employment and environment but decided to stick with the original formula. The use of a formula frees me from partisan feelings and emotions. Liking the person or party is no longer relevant and only the performance of the social and economic indicators matter, kind of like the DOW. I can cuss out that person or the party they belong to because of...

In 2008 oil prices jumped to a staggering US$147 Per Barrel. Guyana has 11 billion barrels of oil. Trinidad and Tobago have 0.24 billion barrels of oil and 10.53 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and all that oil and all that gas have done nothing for the struggling countries of CARICOM. There are no mutual development agreements for member countries. No one hand, washes the other, no special pricing, only crab in a barrel relationship. The only oil producing country in this region that went out of their way to help the struggling countries of the Caribbean was Venezuela and that help came about because our fellow CARICOM country Trinidad and Tobago reneged on a Memorandum of Understanding to supply oil to Jamaica at special rate. In fact, Trinidad and Tobago is notorious for reneging on signed agreement for selfish reasons. The EU put EU countries first before any other. The White Western World Order puts white countries first before any black or brown countries. The Caribbean Commu...

Jamaicans are very selective when it comes to corruption, crime, criminals, and victim outrage. We love to pretend that we are outrage about corruption but for the most part we are not. Jamaica as a society normalized various aspect of corruption and crime, it is seen as an opportunity and all depends on who is the perpetrator, who is benefiting and who is the victim. I once wrote that I had to cut down all the fruit trees in my yard because I was tired of coming home finding people in my yard and up my trees. Based on the response I got from some, one would think I went into the yard of the people who were in my yard and cut down their food trees depriving them of a meal. I became the criminal for cutting down my own tree and they, the invaders of my yard became the victims. We give cute names to crimes we love Scamma and Choppa, and worship community dons, warlords, and Scammers because they are seen as providers for the ghettos. The people respect the fact that they came from nothin...

I often wonder what would be required for a person to feel Happy and Content. I know what makes one person happy and content, may not make another person happy and content. We might all live in the same country or on the same street or even in the same house, but we all have different life experiences, or we can interpret the same life experiences differently. For the most part our society conditioned us to believe that access to a continuous stream of increasing wealth and material goods is what is needed for a person to be happy and content. Children are being conditioned to equate material things with love. For example, some might think that they are loved, if their parents buy them the new iPhone and without it life is not worth living.   What I realized is that this conditioning is often the main source of our misery and unhappiness. No matter how much increasing wealth and material goods we accumulate. It is never enough and adds more complexity to our lives. The fear of...

I have been following several offspring's of our rich, famous, and powerful Movers and Shakers. Historically the apple did not fall far from the tree, because offspring's normally follow in their parent’s footsteps, you know that Norman to Michael succession process. A lot of the modern-day offspring are the most useless and worthless bubbleheaded ditzy set of people floating around Jamaica.  People with big powerful last names who are supposed to be the next generations of Nation Builders, Movers and Shakers and all they do is keep up the most almshouse in life. Some spend their days and nights on social media creating Reels and TikTok rubbish. Talking about how they are social media influencers. Who the frack can you influence with the ditzy, simpleminded, bubbleheaded contents you produce?  They are the most disappointing set of Jamaicans, because they have access to massive amount of resources needed to make a difference in our society and economy. Instead they are on soci...