Jamaican Till I Die!

It is clear that EmanciPendence is not a time for celebration, it is not a time to celebrate great milestones in history and bask in our greatness but a time for expressing great shame and throw blame. Not too long ago I posted a response on the Gleaner Facebook site declaring that every single Jamaican regardless of Geographic location, regardless of age and gender was responsible for the Social and Economic problems, condition and state of Jamaica. As a result of posting this I was bombarded with several responses from people declaring that they had nothing to do with what was and is happening in Jamaica. They had nothing to do with the condition of the country and the state of our society and economy. These people were not only declaring their innocence but started identifying individuals and entities who they consider was the real guilty culprits, the people who should be taken round back, placed against the wall and shot dead. One person declared it was the Ruling class, ...

"He bared his chest and declared…If you are going to shoot, shoot me, but leave these defenceless, hungry people alone." ….Alexander Bustamante I once saw a play in the 80's at the little theater where the above was said by one of the actors and another actor shouted in response…..”A should a now!!” …to the laughter of the audience… His implication was that today's police would have obliged Alexander Bustamante and open fire killing him and everyone dead. I however think that if it was now there would be no one to play the role of Bustamante because that is not how our current so called leaders roll, we would simply be on our own. Market Woman early 1900 For me, the best part of Jamaican history is the period from 1900 to 1962. I call this period the Golden Age of the Nation Building. The fight against hard life and suffering experienced at the hands of British Colonialism. A time when the working class, Educated Class, middle and upper middle class came to...

Why Do some Jamaicans Hate Jamaica? Recently I was having a conversation with a person I have not seen for many years. This person was Jamaican born and bred but like many other Jamaicans, this person migrated to a foreign country.  Before long the conversation turned to Jamaica at which point the individual went into a rant about not being Jamaican any more. The person then tells me she hates Jamaica and that Jamaica had never done anything for her and now she was an American and would never go back to "that" place.  It seemed that Jamaica had done her some great injustice. Normally people who say these things to me would be placed in the “Never see, Come see” category. Normally, in that category are people who were so poor and lived a very hard, suffering life in Jamaica and blamed Jamaica for it but was able to migrate. Give a starving man some dry crackers and he would think it was the best meal in the world. However, this particular person was not like that, for h...