Wutless?

I distinctly recall  that when the $500 bill was being released it took on a nick-name “Nanny” based on the heroine that was depicted on its face.
Since then we have had a $1000 bill released and a now there is news that a $5000 bill is slated to be released.
How great it would be if people took [...]

Which news?

Is it just me or did this RJR reporter have no news whatsoever to share? Top it off with the bad arithmetic in the beginning — 167 out of 169 people on board are released. So that leaves 7 people? WTF?
See if you can spot the multiple bad reporting and inconsistencies [...]

The Attack of the Killer Jamaican Cops

Recently a channel to which I subscribe on Youtube, by an independent film-making company, posted a video about Jamaica’s police.

I’m ambivalent about the video. For example the narrator says that in the ’80s politicians greedy for votes gave out guns. No mention of the Cold War, Manley seeming to embrace Communism, [...]

Jamaican Novelist and Discussions of Race

Last night after a very busy day I got home to hear the last half of an absolutely delightful interview on National Public Radio’s show On Point with Tom Ashbrook;  the interview was with Jamaican novelist Marlon James –  who I first read about in the blogosphere from YardEdge.
James’s new novel, The Book of  Night Women, [...]

Ban Spring Break!

I love blogging here alot, yet recently I wonder if I have been engaging in self-censorship since about Thanksgiving of last year. It is a complex thing — I am a highly positive person who thrives on positivity. I-and-I am normally smiling, regardless of the trials and travails of life in our 21st century because [...]

Stand Up for Justice

Equal rights and justice
Is our everlasting song.
Unity and progress
Will make our nation strong.
Stand up for your rights when you hear the bell,
Stand up for justice -
Hear the freedom bell. Remember Bustamante,
He served you well -
Stand up Jamaicans – when you hear the bell
Stand up Jamaicans – when you hear the bell.
First verse lyrics and chorus [...]

We’re So Special : UPDATED!

Had a conversation today where an old friend of mine from Jamaican schooldays made a point that if Usain Bolt had been caught smoking a bong — a la Michael Phelps — then the media in America would be bemoaning and lamenting his fall from the top; wondering how long his sponsors have before they’re [...]

Ice, ice, baby

I had a bad feeling about walking home on that road. It was nearing 11pm, and I wanted to stop at the only open restaurant I knew where I could grab something light to eat at that late hour. I worried only of never having traveled down that way so late, but decided to chance [...]

With Friends Like These…

Bad luck is reputed to be worse than obeah, but seeing the way that things are working out for the JLP in office I’m not sure recent events can be chalked up to bad luck alone. Some kind of obeah or “science” may provide a more convenient scapegoat for the series of unfortunate  events that [...]

Dirty Laundry

Imagine my surprise when as I recently read a New York Times article about a Kenyan priest who has been ministering in the American Diocese of Owensboro, Kentucky. Apparently, the priest had been born and trained in Kenya and had become a priest in Jamaica, prior to moving on to the United States.
According to the [...]