Jamaican Till I Die!

𝟒.𝟑 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐉𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐜𝐚'𝐬 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐬. 𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐰 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐔𝐒$𝟐.𝟏 𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟔 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐱𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐔𝐒$𝟑 𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟕 Tourism in Jamaica, is like, a person who comes into your home, go into your kitchen, they cook a 10-course meal using your ingredients. They Eat everything and give you scraps, in your home, in your kitchen from your ingredients, tell you to clean up after they make a mess and tell you to be thankful and grateful for the scraps. I am not against tourism, I just want it to be in the National and Environment Interest of the Nation. I will fight for Tourism as an industry when I am sure of tourism’s total contribution to Social Development and Nation Building. I will fight for tourism when I am sure it exists in the national interest. BUT Ever since tourism was developed as an industry in this country, it has never ...

Wrote this in 2018 - Not sure why it was unpublished If there is anything good going on in Jamaica we will never know it because the average Jamaican do not like good news about their homeland and if you try to highlight anything positive they will always counter that with something negative. Bad negative news about Jamaica travels around the world 1000 times faster than any good news because we see good news as a fluke and bad news as the norm. In fact I doubt good news about Jamaica would make it outside of Jamaica. Fear real or imaginary can be profitable. If you can put the fear of God in people and tell them in order to be safe all they need is to buy this or buy into that, then you would be stinking rich and full of power. Fear is a very valid marketing tool used to herd fearful people into doing what you want them to do. Corporation use fear to force people to buy their product and services. Religion uses fear to grow their congregation and increase the size of their collectio...

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...

An article appeared in the March 25, 2011 Observer .  It read:  SPANISH hotel chain Fiesta has announced plans to carry on with its multibillion-dollar expansion of the Grand Palladium Jamaica Resort and Spa in Point, Hanover by a further 900 rooms with an aim to add an additional 2,000 rooms in the near future. Billed as being located in Montego Bay, Jamaica (check the travel websites), this facility is actually located in Point, Hanover, which is 60km west of Montego Bay.  Fiesta calls it the “Grand Palladium Jamaica Resort & Spa”, but what is a “Palladium”, let alone a Grand one?  The word “Palladium” does not appear in Oxford’s Dictionary of Architecture, nor any other architecture dictionary to which I am familiar because a Palladium is not an architectural term or reference.  Per the Oxford English Dictionary: Palladium – a statue of Pallas whose preservation was believed to ensure the safety of Troy; a safeguard. The word derives from the Greek...

What is Jamaica, the brand? What is the image your mind conjures when you think of Jamaica? Sunny beaches, ganja and guns perhaps? Or how about laid back work ethic, homophobia or backward banana republic on the brink of civil unrest? Credible words or great misnomers? An American colleague remarked, “My wife and I have been going to Jamaica now for 8yrs we just love it.” Then he paused, took a deep breathe and said, “But don’t you feel as you drive to the compound and see those shanty huts that any minute now they might rise up with machetes!” Bangkok street riots This is ‘Brand Jamaica”? Is this fear of a black planet or fear of the folklorist bravado that Yaad likes to perpetuate; the bombastic bad bwoy Buccaneer. We know this is the media image of Jamaica, search online and you will be floored by the amount of off-balance reporting and negative reports on gangs and drugs. During the time of the Dudus drama you would think the whole isle was ablaze with unrest and uncertai...