Travelling into the New Year...

Jamaican kids in advertising and politics

IS this political cynicism from the People's National Party political, or maybe that Claro ad with those singing children really is that infectious?

A release from the PNP said that the following came from a party member whose children created two flyers protesting against Government's unpopular tax package.



Cdes,

I had no idea that my children (age 6 & 9) have been paying attention to the Tax issue. They saw the PNP flyer with the child and read the information on it, as well as paying attention to newscasts and obviously overhearing discussion in the house. Unsolicited, they created two flyers which are attached as a way of showing their solidarity. I dont know what they intended

Draw your own conclusions, but we are on the side of right on this issue and must preserve and protect Jamaica, so that our children will have a bright future that includes Jamaica.

PS: the kids asked me to give the flyers to Portia.

TIME Person of the Year - Usain Bolt

HE'S still young. Wrote off his BMW. Got criticised for taking sides in the Gaza-Gully war. And yes, he's not quite as media savvy as last year's winner of TIME magazine's Person of the Year, a one Barack Obama.

However, the magnitude of his success, spanning the Olympics and World Champs in 2008 and 2009: destroying his own world records and still with years ahead of him, have brought immeasurable pride to a small nation.

Like Obama winning the Nobel Prize they'd surely be similar criticisms had Bolt won the TIME award (for once he was only a runner-up). But considering...

It's been a rough 2009, in Jamaica and the rest of the world. But thinking about Bolt's spine-tingling sprints in Berlin and watching him onstage, delivering pure elation to his country, offers at least a speck of comfort.

Read the full story in TIME magazine: click here

Jamaican newspaper industry in safe hands

APART from low Internet access, what really print drives sales is that most newspapers in Jamaica continue to be sold on the road. While Twitter shows the future, for most people however, roadside selling remains the most immediate way of getting your news – that and asking a taximan.

Michael Pryce RIP

Buju arrest stigma too bad for Jamaica

BUJU BANTON'S predicament reads like shorthand for the most unfortunate stigmas associated with Jamaica: 'deejay-homophobe-alleged cocaine dealer'.


There's more than a few stigmas abroad, such as how Caribbean gangs in the United Kingdom all get tagged as 'Yardie' – whether Jamaican or not.

Which maybe encourages things like this...

A Google Alert arrived in my inbox yesterday, about a man robbing a convenience store in Des Moines, Iowa. He was wearing, wait for it, 'sunglasses, a Jamaican hat and fake dreadlocks'.

Manley Seaga Bob '78. Gully Gaza Dudus '09?

THAT historic moment when Bob Marley brought together the two warring political political leaders, and from yesterday morning, the footage of Kartel and Mavado's moment of unity onstage in Tivoli Gardens. Politicians and deejays...

BBC video: Andrea Levy's Small Island

TOP of British television ratings Sunday was this BBC adaptation of Andrea Levy's award-winning novel about Jamaican immigrants living in a depressed post-WW2 London:



To read more about Small Island: click here

Four ways to end Gaza versus Gully

1. If Bolt is a Kartel/Gaza fan and Asafa is a Mavado/Gully fan, then can't they have a relay race and be done with it? Or maybe Nike can make them matching sneakers?

2. Well, they tried it with dominoes.

3. And if all that sounds crazy, Prime Minister Bruce Golding is tomorrow taking time out from the recession, crime etc to meet with, you guessed it, those same two deejays...

4. But, seems a peace was already brokered by the 'President', the same man the United States wants to extradite.

Taking climate change a little more serious

IT'S no secret that we could treat our island and its environment a little better, not least in terms of energy consumption: in Japan electricity use peaks during production hours but in Jamaica it's after work i.e. leisure time.

That said it's reassuring today to pick up today's Observer which is running an editorial on climate change on its front page, together with 55 newspapers worldwide – indication that Jamaica is becoming more sensitive to the issue.

This is timed to coincide with the Copenhagen Summit and the vexed attempt to build a consensus: rich polluting countries want everyone to cut emissions, but then they're already rich; whereas poor, not so polluting countries want to get richer, and that means polluting a little more.

"Kicking our carbon habit within a few short decades will require a feat of engineering and innovation to match anything in our history. But whereas putting a man on the moon or splitting the atom were born of conflict and
competition, the coming carbon race must be driven by a collaborative effort to achieve collective salvation."

Yes we can, or can't?