A moment in reggae not 100% one love

FROM Ego Trip's Big Book of Racism. In 1995: "Two Caucasian journalists visit a three-day Niyabinghi session in a remote section of Spanish Town, on the outskirts of Kingston, Jamaica. A Niyabinghi is a gathering of Rastafarian faithful who sit around an enourmous bonfire, smoke herb, and pound out a steady drumbeat while chanting down the wicked forces of Babylon. The word Niyabinghi means 'death to white opressors,' although some Rastas add 'Black and white oppressors.' On this particular night, the exact meaning isn't quite clear. 'That fire is for you,' one agitated young Rasta tells the white visitors, thoroughly freaking them out. Several hours later, the very same Rasta climbs up on top of the roaring fire and burns himself up."

Holiday In The Caribbean 1948

JAMAICA, "famous for its gigantic trees and beautiful gardens..."

Kingston life in four random photos

KINGSTON doesn't have a beach. Instead we drive to Hellshire or take the boat out to Lime Cay, which was shut down temporarily since the 'infrastructure' – one restaurant and a broken down toilet – couldn't handle the litter problem patrons left behind. Still it's a beautiful place to be early weekend mornings, before the boats blaring bad dance music.


Stepping off one of the regular 'Con Air' flights from the United States, deportees come to this church in downtown Kingston to be processed. On this day they still hadn't arrived. You can see the immigration officials inside the church. The notice on the door was a bizarre welcome, all things considered.


Sadly Alex Twyman has passed away. Originally from the East End of London his was the name behind Alex Twyman's Old Tavern Blue Mountain coffee. The business remains very much open and you visit the premises, the Twyman family cottage, shrouded in mist, perched high up in the mountains overlooking the coffee bush-lined slopes. Make sure to call in advance. Water is from a stream, sweetener is from honey bees on the farm and the coffee is something else.


For those who don't understand art, some art criticism we can relate to. One of many murals that brighten the urban environment in Kingston and St Andrew. However, this portrait of Bob Marley, nearby Edna Manley arts college has sadly remained 'unfunish', as the critic daubed at the top left of the work. Makes me smile anyway.

Crediting Claude McKay: 'If we must die'

JAMAICAN poet Claude McKay and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill would have been unlikely allies. However it was Mackay's If we must die that Churchill turned to during the Second World War to help inspire the British and persuade the Americans to enter the war.

Except that he never credited the Jamaican.

Given Churchill's pro-colonial stance his use of the poem is viewed as more than a little ironic. Written in 1919 it was McKay's response to racist violence across America and his words took on wider meaning to symbolise resistance elswhere in the world, including of course, against Nazi Germany.

Contemporary Jamaican poet, Lorna Goodison, has been campaigning to get McKay his credit. Click here to listen to an interview with Goodison about the issue, broadcast on the BBC today:

If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursed lot.
If we must die, O let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
O kinsmen we must meet the common foe!
Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

Kingston airport: at least Osama's not here

A few weeks ago I was in Miami on a regular work trip: airport-hotel-meeting-mall-hotel-airport. The airport shuttle driver seemed a normal guy until he starting telling one story after another. The one we liked best was his claim that he trained with US special forces, together with Osama bin Laden. It got weirder...

Crazy cabbie

Even then he was very tall and skinny, even though he got a little hairier. But let me tell you that he was the type of person who wasn't afraid of anything. He even got arrested right there and sent to jail for insulting a leader but everybody kept quiet. He came forward and face-to-face told George H Bush, 'Remember this, we're going to war and I'm going to be back and I will kill you!'

And the guy (Bush) says, 'How dare you!' And he told him just like this, 'You don't have the guts and the balls to fight me right now! They will kill me but I will kill you before they kill me!'

Everybody was like, 'Is this guy crazy?' But of course none of us knew that he would be the guy that he is now. He was wealthy and we knew that his family was from Iraq and the other countries and that they had oil wells.

The day I saw him was the day of our graduation, I remember his face. He was raised here, and trained here but his family was so wealthy. He had another name at that time but some of us who were there. Steven Seagal was there too, the actor. Actually we saw Steven Seagal in Vietnam.

The next threat is in Florida and the airport.

He (bin Laden) could be walking around here in Miami or New York or anywhere. You know you can change your face, also your fingerprints with plastic surgery. They can get fingerprints, create tissue and then you have a double of you. This guy is a multi-multi-millionaire and his family is being protected by the United States… This going to be a never-ending story.

Have a great flight!

The one about Miss Ivy at the court house

AN old joke, as received by BlackBerry messenger...

In a recent trial, a Falmouth small town prosecuting attorney called to the witness stand his first witness, a grand motherly, elderly woman named Miss Ivy.>>

The attorney approached her and asked, "Miss Ivy, do you know me?" She responded, "Why, yes of course me know you, Mr. Williams. Me know you since you was a likkle pissing tail pickney, and wata big disappointment you is to you family. You is a ole liard, you cheat pan yuh wife, yuh chat people bizniz, and yuh red-eye, grudgeful and licky-licky. You tink you is a big shot now but you no realize seh you will never amoun to nuttin more dan a two-bit paper pusher! Yes, me know yuh very well alright!!">>

The Lawyer was stunned! Not knowing what else to do, he pointed across the room and asked, "Miss Ivy, do you know the defense attorney?" She looked over at the defense attorney and replied, "Of course, me know Mr. Bradley since him was a likkle bwoy too. Him lazy, and good-fe-nothing, him boasy, and him always a gwaan like him white. Him caan build nuh normal relationship with any woman 'cause him a B****man unda covah. Fe him law practice a di worse eena Jamaica . Him chat nuff, him a ole teef, him dutty and nasty. A three different woman an four man me hear seh him a grind undah covah, an one a di woman dem a you missis (points at> juror member)!! Yes sah, me know him well." The defense attorney almost died of embarrassment.>>

The judge ordered both counselors to approach the bench, and in a very quiet voice, said, "If either of you rassclawt bastards ask her if she knows me, a gwine lock up oonu bumbo eena jail fe contempt!

Kingston: pride, work and future (cont.)

REST of the pages from the Letter from Jamaica spread in Switzerland's Voice magazine (see previous post). I got lucky, not just with the images, but with how the Voice designers used the blog's stamp motif.






View issue here: Kingston Through Afflicted Eyes

Love and hate in Kingston (ft. in Voice mag)

FRIENDS Phred and Afflicted got their hands on a guest editing assignment for an arty Swiss digital magazine called Voice. In an issue devoted to Kingston my simple task was to relate the city in five words: love, hate, pride, future and work.

Probably it was more to do with the photos, but Voice gave my words a generous spread across pages 22-37. You can read the whole issue online, since it's a digital magazine remember. It comes complete with video, music and that neat e-page turning thing they do.

Featured among others there's: Terry Lynn; Edward Seaga; Sean Paul; Missionaries of the Poor; Ernie Ranglin and Monty Alexander; Yendi Phillipps and more beautiful women. If you're too lazy to see all that, here at least is Kingston love and hate (click on images to enlarge):


Voice #7: Kingston Through Afflicted Eyes

Is Jamaica unfixable? asks the Economist

PICKING up on the departures of both the central bank governor and police chief, The Economist has a gloomy article in their latest issue today, about Jamaica's future: the burden of debt and crime.

JUST over two years ago when Bruce Golding’s Labour Party came to power in Jamaica, ending 18 years in opposition, there were modest hopes that it might make progress in tackling the island’s endemic problems of economic stagnation and gang violence.

Read the full article here...

Kapo revival

A Mallica 'Kapo' Reynolds exhibition opens at the National Gallery on Tuesday. One of Jamaica's most celebrated artists and a pioneer of self-taught, so-called intuitive Jamaican art, Kapo's work stretched from painting to sculpture.

The Gallery has been buying back the work from private collections, including The Angel, which had to be bought back from Killing me Softly singer Roberta Flack, valued at a tidy US$450,000.

"At the age of 12, I received the Spirit of Conversion. I was then reading in Fifth Standard. At the age of 16 I left school; I was not bad at reading. I did not love drawing." – Kapo

You can read more about him, and the exhibition, on the gallery's recently launched blog...

'My last job was gunman'

Photos: Afflicted Yard

FACED with 1,600+ murders yearly, it's unsurprising that many Jamaicans support shoot-first policing to get gunmen off the streets. But what about prevention, about youths who view the gun as their only choice and a glamorous one at that? Somebody, something, somehow needs to get different messages into their heads.

We hear reports like the five-year-old boy who brought a gun to school, because his friend 'had lunch with his girl'. And then there was Shaun*, a 'retired gunmen' I interviewed a few years ago. He was a polite, bright 19-year-old who found God, long after first picking up a gun aged just 13.

"AR-15, glock wit extended clip, AK-47, telescope rifle, pump-action shotgun," said Shaun, listing weapons he'd handled. He told me that he hadn't killed anyone; didn't even know whether he'd actually even shot anyone. But then gunfights are hardly events where you'd choose to linger after.

Meeting him, I really wasn't on the look for a teenage serial killer. Rather I simply wanted to gain some understanding as to how the Shauns – as if he was a type – actually became gunmen. He started with his background:

My father was a gunman n' kill people n' ting. When mi deyah school it was a gun ting we d'pon beca even tho wi was inna di girl ting, wi did tek it to a next level beca wi did waa start run the school. Me's a yute, tru mi lef school wit no subject so it really become di gun ting. It kinda difficult to get work and yu find yuself commit some small crime n' start tief and dem tings dere.


He never reached the level of a 'top shotta', but he as explained it, being a gunman could be like any other career, with its own measures of achievement and moving up the corporate ladder. Or, it can be ended abruptly.

It start off like a casual job until yu get a promotion. Mi never tek it to the nex level cos it like a process: at first yu start par wit di man; second level dem start gi yu gun fi hide; third level dem send yu go do some tings; fourth level you start tief and di fifth is where yu kill a man.

He recounted a few stories, incidents like when a group of youths aligned to his crew stole two AK-47s – a decision that cost two of their lives. There were nights spent patrolling their turf, and on one occasion, an ambush at pointblank range where a dozen bullets flew passed his head. But being honest, this was something Shaun enjoyed.

Normal people woulda see this ting and seh 'who dem, why dem fire pon one another?' But wi tek it as an enjoyment ting but in a sense dat, if mi see yu an yu a mi enemy, den mi a kill yu. It fun fi wi. It's such a nice feeling becah when u have a gun pon u it like no boy can gi u any talk but if 'im do, u gona kill 'im.


Then, Shaun's moral compass pointed in a very different direction to most people. "It just feel nice fi click it," he said, still feeling nostalgia for the trigger mechanism. Even finding employment could not keep him away from guns.

It get fi a point where I get a lickle security work but mi bleach a nighttime an mi nah get no form of sleep becah me waa kill two boy. Beca me waa mek mi two duppy too; becah even though yu par among di top shotta dem who kill like 8, 9, 10 people, fi u come into di ting too, yu hafi mek your stripes.

His escape came suddenly and fortuitously. A rival gang member tipped him off about the hit coming his way. It was one brave act between murderous youths which save his life. Now in the Church, Shaun says he has no plans to return to his past. He has a choice.

*Name withheld to protect identity

Jamaica, Singapore and those hard choices

EVERY now and again people cite Singapore as an example of where Jamaica should be going; or should have. But in the 1960s Singapore, and many other developing countries, had modeled themselves on Jamaica, then basking in the fresh glow of independence. However, Lee Kuan Yew, the iron-willed leader of that country from independence in 1965 until 1990, obviously found Jamaican society very different to his own, as described in his autobiography, From Third World to First. Might he assess the situation differently today?


"At Kingston, Jamaica, in April 1975, Prime Minister Michael Manley, a light-skinned West Indian, presided with panache and spoke with great eloquence. But I found his views quixotic. He advocated a "redistribution of the world's wealth." His country was a well-endowed island of 2,000 square miles, with several mountains in the centre, where coffee and other subtropical crops were grown. They had beautiful holiday resorts built by Americans as winter homes. Theirs was a relaxed culture. The people were full of song and dance, spoke eloquently, danced vigorously, and drank copiously. Hard work they had left behind with slavery."

The weekly Pondi Road travel column in the Observer, recently described Singapore as 'sterile' and lacking Jamaica's freedoms, but also had room for envy: "The contrast in the development of both countries is an indictment of what we are willing to accept as a society. The silver lining is that the Singaporean experience demonstrates that it is possible to fix it all in one great visionary's lifetime. Is he out there?"

Bustamante made the Bermuda shirt famous

YES, this is national hero Sir Alexander Bustamante. Not sure what he's doing: promoting the JLP, or Bermuda shirts? From the National Library of Jamaica, so probably not done in Photoshop. Class.

That SSP Renato Adams tune, again

REMEMBER when Senior Superintendent Renato Adams walked free from the Kraal murder trial in 2006? There was the media hype, calls for his reinstatement and to top it, Adams simultaneously released this track, To Protect and Serve, voiced on the appropriately named Carbine riddim.

Now retired and farming, but interested in applying for the vacant job of Commissioner of Police, Adams says he plans a "massive operational assault to put criminals on the run". And reading the comments on the Observer message board yesterday under that story, public opinion seems in favour of 'the cop that badmen fear'.

Click here to listen...

The man who would've owned all of Jamaica

MY job has afforded me the privilege of meeting some fairly crazy people, like the madman who rang the news desk shrieking that a prominent politician was going to kill him. That same caller eventually started a ponzi scheme in which people reportedly lost millions of US dollars.

But for everyone like him there's countless more inhabiting the capital's rum bars with their own stories of disenfranchisement to tell. The least you can do is buy them a drink. Like the man below (from the Jamaica Observer).


A few weeks ago, when Usain Bolt was awarded the Order of Jamaica, there was a small interruption to the ceremony when a Rastafarian man was ejected from King's House. A few days later my friend met this gentlemen who proceeded to give him the full story:

Man: "A me man. Dem dishonour me still."

Friend: "Er, okay."

Man: "A mi man. Ever, Ever-ton. New name Dat, forever it mean, for all time. Everton. Forever, forever..."

Friend: This guy is kind of crazy... could be interesting.

Man: "What dem never know is dat mi a Nanny great-grandson and so everyting in Jamaica is bequeath to I and furthermore when I go Collie Smith High in Trench Town mi did buy all the rights for all dem ting dere like Vale Royal but me just leave black people fi have it. So, because I leave it with dem for so many years dem get to think seh it fi dem own so I come back to King's House now to talk to the Governor General about the situation and when I come back they never deal with mi like a prince, like royalty.

"Anyway, I walk go into King's House and some policeman seh, 'What are you doing here?' So I tell dem, but I never listen to dem, so I proceed to walk towards the Governor-General and they proceed to forcibly pull me out. Dem never beat mi up or anything but I never think that this is right.

"The whole world need to know that next time when I come they must treat mi with respect."

First: Made in JA, reengineered in Germany

FIRST magazine celebrates its fifth anniversary next month, well it would were there actually some $ around, but more on that another time. Collaborator Gabriel Holzner has redesigned and repackaged First content as a 150-page book.


Gabe took everything a step further with the book, which is a stunning document of today's Jamaica: from when First was in print between 2004-5; fleetingly as a blog last year; and some new stuff produced by him and Tobias Huber – the co-owner of Seen, from Germany.

Among other things there's: the aftermath of five alleged gunmen being killed by the police-army in Tivoli Gardens; a fashion shoot; the plight of a Jamaican emigrant; community boxing and an encounter with some drunk, oversexed American tourists.

My favourite is Our Darkest Hours, Gabe's ghostly but rich nighttime photos of downtown Kingston. Click here to view the entire book online, complete with special mp3 mixes...

Can society really wash its hands of crime?

THE Jamaica Observer launched a stinging attack on the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) government in today's editorial, claiming hypocrisy in the departure of Police Commissioner Hardley Lewin.

Cartoon: Jamaica Observer

Especially bruising perhaps is that the newspaper is perceived as favouring the JLP. The writer certainly pulled no punches, saying that the JLP is losing credibility on crime:

For the government, via its dithering with regard to the US extradition request for Mr Christopher Coke, who is wanted in that country to answer charges of arms and drug trafficking, is fast disqualifying itself as a credible source of information in terms of the Jamaican crime situation.

While some have blamed Lewin for failing to combat crime, the reality is that during the two years of this government, Jamaica has seen the back of two commissioners and two security ministers. His job was not an easy one.

And his replacement will likely be just as hapless, since, as the Observer also pointed out, organised crime is ingrained in society. It's long past being just police and thieves.

I once sat waiting to conduct an interview outside a banker's office. Out walked the banker with a 'popular local businessman' AKA, a don. A month later at the birthday party for a prominent politician, that same man rolled up, in a convoy of SUVs.

Or do we face up to the reality that crime, as we know, is here to stay and get worse as long as politicians, civil society and communities continue to maintain that nefarious historical link with criminals that Mr Lewin spoke so cagily about a few weeks ago?

Rich meets poor at Kingston crossroads

DON'T know whether it's an accurate measure of the recession but these days traffic lights are getting no less crowded with people selling, cleaning windows or begging.

Photo: Afflicted Yard

This morning I saw a youth lie down under the wheels of an SUV in a vain attempt to get some change.

Meantime, spotted at those same lights at Matilda's Corner a few weeks back, a Bentley Continental:

- Jamaican GDP per capita: US$7,500.

- Bentley Continental sticker price: US$170,000-200,000.

- Import duty: 192 per cent.

Poor guy could've waited. They dropped duty 62 per cent.

10 things you'll never see in Kingston...

BUT which we did see in Miami:

Panty king, Eee...

1. Too much foam, not enough coffee. That's just racist.

2. A male shopping mall worker tried to rub some kind of lotion into my terrified colleague's hand.

3. Colleague had to find a polite but firm way of saying 'NO!' to the man, who was now chasing him, without shaming Jamaicans everywhere.

4. A beautiful woman holds open the door for us. Priceless.

5. Free internet

6. The hotel driver, who was perhaps of unsound mind, told us on the way back to MIA that he served in US special forces with Steven Seagal and Osama bin Laden.

7. It was five minutes away from MIA when our new friend told us us that Osama's next target was in fact the airport. Not yet as it turned out.

8. *Note to US law enforcement: 'bin Laden's probably still in Florida.'

9. The departure gate for the Kingston flight was a long walk from food and seating (see 1... except it was pointed out that we were at the wrong gate).

10. Everything else we couldn't afford.

Can downtown Kingston really be saved?

THIS was interesting, from today's Observer, about efforts to redevelop Kingston's rundown downtown district.

Just last week Digicel announced that it was relocating its headquarters downtown, partly thanks to a generous tax break from the Jamaica Labour Party government. The JLP's 2007 election manifesto promised to revive the area, including an offshore financial centre:

Establish Kingston as a choice location for offshore financial services to exploit the benefits currently being enjoyed by countries such as the Cayman Islands and Bermuda. This will be sited in downtown Kingston as a fulcrum for the much needed redevelopment of that part of the city.

The current reality is that downtown is a crumbling but lively merchant area populated by some of the city's poorest while headquarters. Some of the island's largest company do remain, besides those of government entities. The same vitality once saw the area become a nightlife hotspot still remains, albeit depressed.

You're just a short walk from the harbour front; places of historic interest, including the National Gallery; the cheapest shopping in town; Coronation market; the Passa Passa street dance in Tivoli Gardens and countless other attractions.

Australian artist Melinda Brown cites this cultural pulse as the inspiration for setting up her studio there, having on her first visit to Jamaica walked downtown from where she was staying uptown in Liguanea, a place she said was by comparison, like a mortuary.

Okay, downtown may not be for the fainthearted and yes, Melinda Brown isn't you're average tourist – as the set designer for Mad Max she was well-equipped to feel at home. And yes it's a world away from European café society. but then it's a lot safer than you'd imagine and in the long run surely offers more than Montego Bay's culturally sanitised Hip Strip.

Click here to view the work of downtown artist Sand (see photo), via Seen.