Jamaican Till I Die!

Such a shame because we invented the term and concept of Yard and Yardie to mean something wholesome and comforting. It was invented out of love for our Nationality, Island and people. In Jamaica the term yard is used to identify a place of safety and comfort. You are out on the road and something happened and the first thing that comes to people’s mind is “Mi A Go a mi Yard, cause a pure almshouse out yah” so we retreat to the comfort and safety of our beloved yard… “hey that is why me stay a my yard more times” ...because bad things always happen outside of your yard. Then Jamaicans travelling started identifying each other in that comforting manner, “hey yu a Yardie?” was all its takes for the conversation and familiarity to start to flow. After a while everyone wanted to be a Yardie, even people who were not from yard and had no connection to yard started pretending to be Yardie, because it was cool to be a Yardie. I have been in some remote faraway places only to hear som...

Jamaican Yardies are destroying Her Majesties Perfect Society I wrote this on: January 1st 2003, found it and decided to Blog it. Derived from Jamaican Patois, the term "yardie" can be ambiguous, having multiple meanings depending on context. In the most innocuous sense, "yardie" can simply refer to a Jamaican national; as "yard" can mean "home", our beloved rock, our island home. Jamaican expatriates who moved abroad to countries such as the U.K. and U.S. would often refer to themselves and other Jamaicans as "yardies". Then Yard and yardie became a dirty word. It seems that almost all crimes committed in the UK is expected to have a Jamaican connection, it is the first thing the authorities look for.  The British media is constantly reporting about Jamaican drug gangs, Jamaican drug mules, Jamaican criminals and yardie violence. It seems that Jamaican yardies are destroying Her Majesties perfect society. Jamaicans are bein...