Enemy of the State: The Lampooned Maroons

Definition:
1- a person who is marooned
2- capitalized : a Black person of the West Indies and Guiana in the 17th and 18th centuries who escaped slavery also : a descendant of such a person

The Present Maroon Conundrum

Statehood and Sovereignty

It is time for us to uncritically accept that Maroons played a vital role in the continuation of slavery as an institution. What is even more whimsical is that Jamaica currently enjoys amicable relations with governments that were directly responsible for slavery as an institution. What a conundrum!

 

There are five Maroon groups in the country, one of which has become a secessionist voice for social upheaval and that is the Accompong strand or branch. Thy have been purporting unsubstantiated claims of being a sovereign State, is being heard through its colonel, Mr. Richard Currie. These utterances have no legal standing, according to several legal minds. The most obvious demonstration of this is the fact that all Maroons travel on Jamaican-issued passports. The reality is that in the 12th year of his reign an edict of King George II of Great Britain and Jamaica empowered John Gutherie and Francis Sadler “to negotiate and finally conclude a treaty of peace and friendship” with Colonel Cudjoe and his captains. This would be known as the First Maroon Treaty of 1739.

An examination of the Treaty of the Leeward Maroons has indicated up to eight instances that speak to and against the authority and nationhood of the Maroons. The treaty acknowledges the leadership of the colonel by referring to his people as his “subjects” who, being in a “perfect state of freedom and liberty” (Article II)… will enjoy and possess, in perpetuity, land of 1,500 acres “between Trelawney Town and The Cockpits” (Article III). They have the right to trade outside of their bounds, but must do so under a license (Article IV).



According to a news item in the Jamaica Observer, the Cabinet has ordered the withholding of funds and support to any entity which claims to be a sovereign State. On Sunday BroGad played bad cop and stomped his foot down by declaring that Jamaica is a unitary State, and as such Accompong falls under the Government of Jamaica's legal ambit and, by extension, the Jamaica Constabulary Force and every government body there is.

Maroons are considered by some in academia to be Indigenous Peoples and that they should have rights under the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. But that paradox raises interesting questions as how can Maroons be both indigenous and  descended from Africa. I understand indigenous to refer to Native Americans and Aboriginal who are located at a place before our collective or maybe European history has record for. We know maroons are not even unique to Jamaica so how indigenous is it really?

There needs to be a consensus as to whether the Maroon communities are either a sovereign proto-state within a State, Imperium in imperio as it is known. Or maybe an indigenous reserve (much like the native indians in the US), or the average town flying the Jamaican flag? Vatican City and Eswatini are examples of this state within a state concept. It is a thing that can be done but Currie needs to be realistic and get about charting a course to statehood rather than proving a lack of legal and historical knowledge. Let us hope Brogad learnt from Busta's lessons and wont be blinded and create another Coral Gardens Massacre so close to our nation's special anniversary of independence.

Dear Paradise II: Another Love Letter to My Community

As long as I breathe, I hope. As long as I breathe I shall fight for the future, that radiant future, in which man, strong and beautiful, will become master of the drifting stream of his history and will direct it towards the boundless horizons of beauty, joy and happiness!
-Leon Trotsky

Dear Family, friends, community members, associates one and all,

You may be a parent, teacher, police officer, young person, community activist, or someone angered by what you see wrong in Jamaica, Mobay and Paradise. I would like to invite you into a space of uncompromised honesty. Let us engage each other in conversation, not primarily as scholars wanting to defend a theory, or as politicians seeking to win votes or advance a public policy agenda, or even as activists fighting for a cause, but instead, just as human beings trying to understand, as clearly as possible, our situation and condition at this turbulent moment in history.

As activists or community member I am sure your anger is sparked by gun violence, youth unemployment, classism, social justice or inequality — or you simply don’t understand why some people are upset — you are not alone. Like many, you might feel helpless, thinking, “I could never make a real difference or lasting change.” But you’d be wrong. Humans are such a complex species. We could not figure out the mind of a human, no matter how hard we tried. Psychology touches on some of the behavioral and thought processes that are experienced by a human, but Psychology will never be completely factual because the human brain is far too complicated.



We want the world to be a happy and just place, maybe it will or won’t be so. But you must know that change comes from parents and teachers who instill the power of critical thinking in children and teens. It comes from leaders who build relationships between diverse people and organizations. It comes from everyday people who think deeply about problems and solutions. How does this happen? We cannot begin to make effective change in our communities until we recognize how we are intricately connected to the people and issues we want to change.

Community is like family; and like all families, we may not always get along or see eye-to-eye. But just like my daughter likes to say, ‘family sticks together and helps one another.” Community is about people who care about one another and are willing to be united for the betterment of the greater good.

Now the other day a community member, one Teacher P/QP picked my brain with a question or more like a quote he had read, it went like this “Of all the follies in which man indulges there is none greater than the folly of thinking one can change the world!” He said he shared it because I was one of the few people who could fathom it in the immediate environment. I wondered if it was that he thought that my activities trying to better the community were in vain. I think he expected me to contemplate and give him a response. The quote did blow me away for a few days.

But a few days later the universe it seems gave me the answer. I don’t remember what I was watching on Youtube but some speaker had said, “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled, is to offer you something you already have. He would have you believe you are nothing and insignificant and unable to affect your destiny or impact the world without his help. But therein is the lie, for from the moment you enter the world it is already fundamentally changed, your presence has already impacted lives, for you life has altered your mother and father, the spaces you inhabit.

Now to be honest I haven’t shared the answer in person with Teacher P but ironically I found our dialogue mirrored in an episode of Star Trek… yeah I am a trekkie… especially seeing one of the characters was called Q, but the conversation went like this:

Q:
Hear this, Picard, and reflect: "All the galaxy is a stage."... "Life is but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

Q:
Perhaps maybe a little, uh, Hamlet?

Captain Jean-Luc Picard:
Oh, I know Hamlet. And what he might say with irony, I say with conviction: "What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form, in moving, how express and admirable! In action, how like an angel! In apprehension, how like a god!"

Q:
Surely, you don't see your species like that, do you?

Captain Jean-Luc Picard:
I see us one day becoming that, Q. Is it that which concerns you?

I put all this to say that, granted much is wrong with the community I am truly grateful for stilling having a space where discuss my love relationship with the community. I believe when we lift others we rise together. Through discourse, discussion and debate. It is no coincidence Paradise has a spot called debate corner, it is not for the faint of heart. More than ever we must remember to help others. We are all where we are because someone helped us along our journey. I wanted to share a letter of thanks to the community for all you’ve done and meant to me. When all is said and done, I hope I will have done more than I said. As I remain optimistic and realistic in this gloomy and slow times, I close with the following:

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Party Reformation: My Struggles with PNP

“We'd all like t'vote for th' best man, but he's never a candidate”
Kin Hubbard

For some time I have been uncomfortable with the inner workings of the People’s National Party. Sometimes I can’t tell the difference between the PNP and the JLP. This to me is an issue of ideology and personality. Ideologically the PNP used to a socialist party and governed by a social democratic ethos, that is no more. Socialism used to be unfashionable so the party abandoned it somewhere in the 90’s while subscribing to IMF edicts. However Jeremy Corbyn, Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Occasio Cortez and Kshema Sawant prove that socialism is alive and well even in the heart of world superpowers. Yet the PNP drifts ideologically and philosophically here in this 21st century. Then when we see candidate choice and selection for both local and central government elections are riddled with egomaniacs on both sides who treat the electorate as secondary or non-essential till election day while always courting the delegates of both parties who are stuck as die hearts to each party or victims of some kind of political Stockholm’s syndrome. This cannot continue.

Well the monomania media election blitz will soon be in full swing, and everybody will be vying for votes. Tribal politics has taken to social media and the factions there are always in electoral fever. In all this Mobay, the government’s bastard child always neglected for the media pet Kingston, it seems silly that we, major contributors to the nation’s economy, via tourism, foreign currency and remittance dollars (legal and via lotto scam), have so little say. I say we hold candidates to ransom; each community ought to kidnap the MP, until the community’s demands are met. Until there is a community centre in every community, till the roads are addressed, until drainage is solved and so on.



Dr Peter Phillips’ viability as party leader is in question, it is one of the central issues to the undecided voter. The party is confronting new questions about who it is and what it stands for. The more important question however,  is how this plays out in our next election. PNP hopefuls will need to test the “articulate minority’s” and the grassroot’s wish list on the stump and might feel pressure to outbid each other on how far left they can go. Those apparently pursuing an “adult in the room” or  “trying to stay tame and sound normal strategy,” such as the PNP has been fumbling along with, will not only face opposition from the modern PNP base and the unattached voters, but will also find the free media oxygen sucked from the room by the more colorful radical opponents.

The ideologically driven members of the party make for good television but bad politics where the conservative party members and delegates are concerned. But the ideas that are talked about by civil society organizations, popular movements and political radicals in Jamaica are neglected by the PNP extablishment. In a May 2016 article entitled “Portia Betrayed” O. Dave Allen contends that the PNP and Portia was betrayed by the country, I contend that it is the PNP that betrayed the voters and even he seems to admit that when he wrote in the article that:

“The opposition was broke, starved of donor funding from the private sector, the leadership of Andrew Holness was in question; and the JLP fractious. For the first time in the history of Peoples National Party, the party enjoyed the full and explicit support for its policies by the formal private sector, the international donor community and local and international financial intermediaries.Yet not much could be shown by way of social programmes in keeping with the historic characteristics, policies and programmes of previous PNP administrations.”

Grassroots leftist insurgency that has sprung up across the country, including in spots far from PNP strongholds. Today, ultimately, the most profound progressive leadership for the PNP is not being embraced at all. It’s in communities and movements across the country—nurturing diverse progressive political strengths in many aspects of social change, including at election time.

No matter how intense the top-down pressure gets from Party hierarchy, we should insist from the ground up that members of Parliament and Councillors stand their ground for progressive principles that the man in the street is seeking. If party members aren’t willing to fight for those principles, then the grassroots will mobilize: to create an outcry, to lobby and to consider launching challenges as is evidenced by Peter Buntings hat being thrown in PNP’s political ring. I think it is a good thing and no elected officials should be immune from scrutiny and accountability.

Open Letter to Santa Claus

“As I said before, the birth of Christ is celebrated all over the world. When I say the whole world it does not mean that all people would observe it in the same manner. In all the places that I have visited, including the Muslims and the Buddhists, We have seen the observance. But for Christians it is an act conducted with love.”
~H.I.M. Haile Selassie

Dear Santa Claus,

I hope I don’t offend you but I must admit you were never part of my childhood, and the butt of jokes in my adult years. You were the fat, caucasian magical elf-man who leaves you presents to confirm that some white child was a good kid, whilst in Jamaica we just got Green Grinches filling their political coffers. Wheatley the Grinch who stole Petrojam, Holness the Grinch who dodged his stash in St. Lucia, Seaga the Grinch who sold us to the C.I.A. But this is not about the Grinches, I’ve meditating your esteemed post Santa… “why is it you never come to the ghetto?” “Is it because we don’t have chimneys in Jamaica?” “has your elfly magic staved off global warming from melting away your mythical North Pole home?” “Are you’re X-mas lists longer now that you have emails and whatsapp?” “Are you elves, enslaved or dwarves from some major human trafficking ring?” “How come I’ve never seen you mentioned in the Bible?” “It’s Jesus’ Earthstrong Party why do you gotta be hogging the spotlight though?”

Anyway as much as Marcia Griffiths and Chronixx having been asking why is it you don’t come to the ghetto… right now… to me it doesn’t even make any sense you come, because you have the whole world or almost to deliver to and mi nuh want them hold you up a search you when you a come through the Zoso and SOE in Montego Bay and St. Catherine, it suppose to take forever to pack that bag and organize it, it suppose to take forever for the to search it too, and sure know seh the kiddies round the world don’t want no root up present. Also you may have two nerf super soakers or a few water guns, and a don’t want the police to charge you, worse if you have any fire-crackers and so.

“Christmas” is a Catholic version of a pagan holiday to greet the New Year and be thankful for the autumn harvest of summer crops. Why some Christians continually get worked up over how a pagan holiday is acknowledged by commercial businesses in a capitalist economy defies common sense and reason. But be warned Santa… I hear Santa means Saint, so I am assuming you have some Catholic lineage as they are the group most fond of Sainthood, and with heavy African religious retention around here, Jamaicans tend to be a little Catholic and Pope averse in these streets.

Papa Claus it is worth asking also, since the pagan festival of the winter solstice, already thousands of years old when Christianity arrived on the scene. The ancient druids celebrated the rebirth of the sun; the Greeks made it the birthday of Zeus; the Romans debased it and called it Saturnalia; the Jews attached it to the rebirth of their religion after it had been "killed" by the Syrians; the Christians turned it into Jesus's birthday; is that the reason you “fava” Odin, Father Time and Zeus and dem man deh so much?

I know it seems I am skipping all over the place but, remember up at the beginning of the letter I mentioned climate change, well that is an ecological hazard, don’t it? I was wondering if you could help us with small ecosystem problem… if you ever come here that is! Well you see they have some deer in Portland that is reported to be “nyaming dung” the farm dem and whole of the place there… Rudolph and Prancer them must want “likkle” rest man… just do we a favour and take the deer off our hands.

Don Claus, I and I wanna know, is Santa just a jolly ol’, harmless, friendly fellow? Or is there something or someone else hiding behind jolly ol’ St. Nick? For… the next thing… as a Rasta-man and a parent, mi nuh like strange people, especially man come a mi yard, Jah man, when you see the Rasta gate up a Paradise, if you come a Jamaica and manage to make it to Mobay, just skip it… cause mi paranoid, so if mi see a man a mi yard near all midnight, everybody know mi broke so a must mi woman or pickney you a come fi trouble, nuh dweet... I will chop you. Plus in my household we practise not to take things from people… mi nuh want nuh man try tame mi child wid sweets, cause mi nuh know who a perv. Plus mi hear bout you and that pickney siddung inna lap business… mi nuh like dat!!! Worse all lap business banned as of Dalton X-Factor moment.

I know it seems I am picking on you and going really hard but… You ever noticed how easy it is to transform "Satan" from "Santa"? Just move the "n" to the end. And presto! "Satan" appears… Hmmm!!! An internet Google search on "Satan Claus" [not Santa Claus – but SATAN Claus] found over 4000 hits! Obviously, there are many that tie the two together.

The rearranging of letters (called anagrams) to hide secret names or words has long been practiced in the occult. So Missa Claus, how do you explain that… these are the hings that make I man get so sceptic…

Anyway… I won’t distress you anymore with my philosophical ranting and ramble Missa Claus, but if you do exist and if you are working… I beg you don’t fret on us here in Jamaica, we have Selassie and Ananse and Yahweh and all kind backative down here, but I beg you remember the children dying in the Gaza and Yemen, the one’s being trafficked, the Little Drummer Boys and all the Little Match Girls, the children in sweatshops… yah man, if you can deal with those children first then you can have my ratings. Anyway mi boss likkle more, a have a feeling mi nuh deh pon you nice list.

Yours respectfully

Yannick Nesta Pessoa.

Blessed Winter Solstice to You and Yours.

FREE PALESTINE

The history of Jamaica is littered with the legends of a pioneering people, hence it ought to be no surprise Jamaica has had a groundbreaking part in the fight to dismantle the evil regime of apartheid. Yep, this little island was the first country in the western hemisphere and second in the world to India which officially banned trade and travel with the fascist apartheid Government which practiced a brutal form of racism in South Africa. Former Premier Norman Manley officially banned trade and travel with South Africa in 1956 when Jamaica was still a colony of Britain. Our involvement began in 1901 when Pan-African committees were set up in various parishes by Robert Lowe and began to hit out against the trials of the South African people and educated Jamaicans about the Boer war. Our leadership was of such a bold and daring caliber at one time we drew the ire of then American Secretary of State Henry Kissinger for our refusal to condemn Angola's independence which was won in January 1975 when the Portuguese Government, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, and the National Liberation Front of Angola signed the Alvor Agreement. So then when I see a similar crisis not the same crisis but similar one, unfolding in the Middle East, in Palestine, and I can hear not even one voice of descent in our media today, I wonder where our revolutionary vim and vigour has gone.

The Jewish and Black communities have long danced around one another, at times feeling solidarity and at others, opposition. Both groups have developed a self-understanding rooted in a history of oppression and struggle, often in solidarity with others in need. Jamaica has a history with Jews starting not more than three decades after Columbus’ arrival here. As a matter of fact Jamaica was sanctuary for Jews fleeing Spain and Portugal because of the Spanish inquisitions.Jamaican Jews include the Matalon family, Gleaner co-founders, Jacob and Joshua de Cordova. Jacob went on to found the city of Waco, Texas. Common Jewish surnames in Jamaica are: Abrahams, Alexander, Isaacs, Levy, Marish, Lindo, Sangster, Da Silva, De souza, DeCohen, De Leon, Barrett, Babb, Magnus, Marley, Messado, Pessoa, DeLisser, Codner, Decosta, Henriques, Tavares and Rodriques.

A recent study has now estimated that nearly 424,000 Jamaicans are descendants of Jewish (Sephardic) immigrants to Jamaica from Portugal and Spain from 1494 to the present, either by birth or ancestry. Then there are theorists who contend that West Africans are a tribe of Israel that fled west and if Jamaica’s African population came from West Africa, then we have a possible double connection. Consider now that Haile Selassie is said to be the 225th descendant of King David, and Ethiopia is home to Jews sometimes called Falashas… it seems we are more bound to the Jewish story than we knew. Now imagine the other day when I went to the Kosher Restaurant on Gloucester Avenue, there was a picture of Andrew Holness praying at the Wailing wall in a Jewish cap.

Now with all that has been said above, throw this next but of info into the mix. The origins to the conflict can be traced back to Jewish immigration, and sectarian conflict in Mandatory Palestine between Jews and Arabs. It has been referred to as the world's "most intractable conflict", with the ongoing Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip reaching 51 years.No wonder there are as many positions on Israel within the Jewish community as there are Jews, including many who adamantly oppose the country’s treatment of Palestinians or its erection of the security barrier. On Tuesday 6 June 2017 edition of the Independent a UK publication, in an article title “The Israeli Occupation is a Jewish tragedy – it's our responsibility to make sure it comes to an end” a Jewish writer penned the following: “The Occupation is systematic. It necessitates daily indignity and violence towards Palestinians in order to maintain a status quo that prioritises Israeli sovereignty. It’s numbingly bureaucratic, overwhelmed by permits, checkpoints and court orders. It’s a 99.75 percent conviction rate of Palestinians who are tried in the military courts. It’s Israeli teenagers in uniforms with rifles, roughing up elderly men who just want to live on their land. This is not the Israel I learnt about as a child; these are not supposed to be the actions of ‘the most moral army in the world.’ But it is the reality.”

Sometimes it seems in the mass media that to critique Israel or to disagrees with Israel is to court allegations of anti-Semitism. To be clear, this is not about hating Israelis, or hating Palestinians. It isn’t down to individuals, though often this conflict feels deeply personal to some of us as most of Jamaica’s major religions are Abrahamic in origin. But at the end of the day, this is about systems. Systems that create a dual state of the powerful and the powerless. Again, it is a structural problem. So know that you and I are part of that broken system when we fail at moral courage, when we just shut up and keep our head down; especially when we do not speak truth to power, and worse we don’t get power to acknowledge the truth.

I was surprised by the amount of Jamaicans who thought Israel was in heaven or thought so when they were small. Israel was always a place on Earth in my understanding at all times. Maybe that is why Israel seems so surreal or ethereal in the Jamaican psyche. When I was born 1981, I came into a world where it seemed war was eternal. Jamaica was n political and tribal wars. JBC used to have a news intro that would whisper names like Yitzhak Rabin, Saddam Hussein, other names that quickly occupied my world were, Qaddafi, Anwar Sadat, Idi Amin, Yasser Arafat, Ariel Sharon, Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin and others. So for the better part of 4 decades, I have been watching wars and hearing rumors of wars. I say this to say one simple truth thing. The conflicts in the middle east have run long passed  a reasonable length of time. It is time to simply FREE PALESTINE!

Pot Holes: Filling in the Gaps

Infrastructure investments lead to jobs. And quality of life starts with a good job.
John Hickenlooper 

When I am driving my car down the street, I try not to go down the potholes.
Philip Green

The potholes in the roads are a problem, the political ones, the metaphorical ones, but I'm talking about the literal ones now… they are one of if not the biggest headache we have right now on the road. It seems like every year we complain that potholes seem worse than they have ever been. But this year, they really do seem worse than they ever have been. I haven't seen any part of the city, or peripheral town or village that is immune to pothole pox, and the rains of the last few months has really made for brutal rides on many many roads. It seems that the busier they are, the worse they are, particularly because the city has been cheap with their paving budgets. Even though Jamaicans depend on this infrastructure to go about their daily lives in safety, our mayor has been relatively quiet on the need to revitalize the city’s roads, bridges, sewers, dams, and water treatment plants.

I am not saying we need an ambitious and expensive plan to modernize their city’s infrastructure, however, a competitive city simply cannot have sewers backing-up into basements and streets flooding every time it rains. The savvy voters and taxpayers in Jamaica today are looking to get the biggest bang for their buck when it comes to the cost of government. That includes the cost of building and repairing streets. For that reason alone, our municipality should require bids for both asphalt and concrete pavements. And those bids should include a life cycle cost analysis for road construction or repair projects. Doing so helps them determine whether using asphalt or concrete materials is the more cost-effective, sustainable investment.

Alternatives 

A possible solution could be, using old vehicle tires as a long term solution for patching the number of potholes on roads across the city and possibly the country could easily be piloted in Montego Bay. The process of using rubberized asphalt to pave roads has been working well in the US and Canada. This process can fix both the stress and damages caused by the poor quality of the roads and cut down on the large quantities of old tires. Rubberized asphalt is made from asphalt concrete and mixed with crumb rubber from recycled tires. The city can look into at taking our old tires, which is another headache to us, and turn them into rubber the steel and the fluff from the tire itself it can pave the roads. The roads become softer and you wouldn’t skid or slide on the roads. Maintenance solution waste removal solution, safety solution, financial solution… all rolled into one. It can work. We can take our tires and turn them into crumb rubber and pave the roads with them. There is so much more use for old tires. It is for our municipality, our city to decide the way forward, not follow the tides of time as usual and get left behind.

Experts claim the road requires less maintenance and still allows for drainage, while tyre recyclers claim the technique will also save money because the new material is thinner than standard roads. Rubber roads were first built in the 1960s in the US, where today there are 20,000 miles of road made of recycled tyres. Rubber roads are also popular in China, Brazil, Spain and Germany.
Another solution that came to me is tied to social enterprise. Wikipedia defines social enterprise as an organization that applies commercial strategies to maximize improvements in financial, social and environmental well-being—this may include maximizing social impact alongside profits for external shareholders. So what do potholes have to do with social enterprise? Well I have been thinking… why doesn’t the municipality hire the men who already go around patching the roads informally as a side hustle to officially operate as road maintenance personnel. I think it ought to be fairly easy for the municipality to employ them give them a minimum wage stipend, negotiate with the chamber of commerce or the hardware businesses directly to provide them with propatch asphalt and cement to help alleviate a road crisis, at the same time encouraging motorists to donate to the cause by tipping the road patchers. The social benefit is the road patchers receive official pay and employ, the road is not as bad for motorists and commuters, improved safety, a good public relations look for the municipality. Maybe the plan could be tweaked in some places but you get the picture we need to be more innovative about the road that lies ahead, it is filled with ruts and potholes, to fix them and navigate them require a new outlook.

Future Change 

Our city needs an intensified island-wide road works programme. You would think that with all of the technological advancements we have seen in our lifetime, someone would have figured out a better way to fix damaged roads. There is a ton of money to be made, and I'm sure the insurance companies and municipalities that pay out claims for damaged vehicles would be happy to see it. Of course, the municipal corporation could spend more money on routine maintenance and paving that would prevent a lot of these problems, but that ship has obviously sailed. I can only hope that one day someone in public office might begin to take responsibility for genuinely solving this problem, as they say nowadays “own it”. If not and we continue to dither, delay and propose inadequate measures , we will leave a bigger problem for Montego Bay’s children.

About the author: Yannick Nesta Pessoa B.A. is Jamaica’s first blogger, a Social/Community Activist and Law Student at Utech Western Jamaica. Follow on Twitter at @yahnyk. Reply to yannickpessoa@gmail.com

Crying for the Nation

"Weeping is but a cleansing of the soul"
Rev. Donovan Myers 

"Battles of kings, and of fools, And changes in ways he once knew, As pages of days fade away, He's lost in time...Cry for the nations."
Michael Schenker Group


I have a confession to make… many times I am up writing, thinking, meditating, crafting, drawing, studying… something happens. I become overwhelmed with thoughts on the state of things as they are and tears stream down my face. My heartaches for the world and sometimes it make me bitter because I think it is the Prime Ministers, members of parliament and councillors who should be crying in the night, weighted by the ills of this world and the injustice in which they have had a hand in. Crying because of their lack of imagination. Crying for their spinelessness in the face of world leaders. Crying because they can only cry when it’s PR time or when they are forced to resign or lose an election. Do you cry? Not for your own personal suffering, but out of empathy and sympathy for your fellow human being, DO YOU?

I remember a situation a few years back, there was  a power cut in Norwood. Norwood being Norwood, I was following my mind and jamming at the shop I was at, because I wasn’t feeling the energy to navigate the dark to my yard. It so happens a little girl, no more than eight years old passes heading up Top Road, then turns back, and comes to the shop. I assume she scans the crowd there and then says to me “Sir, can you follow me up the road, I am afraid something might happen to me if I walk home alone.” Now I wonder to myself “Why me?” Anyway I take false bravado and say “Of course, sure”. Anyway we set off up the road, it turns out the child is a chatterbox, but I am paying her very little mind as “mi eye a peel out the dark” in case of any possible trouble. It then dawns on me life is wretched, what is a child doing going to shop after 8 pm and why does she need an escort and all the evils that could befall her suddenly become my greatest concern, then I became moved and honored that she would sense absolutely no danger in me as a stranger, and ask me to walk her home.

In the dark of that night walking this child and stranger, I was moved to tears. Honestly, enuh! And I am glad it was dark so the child ‘wouldn’t see seh mi so big and fool fool.” Anyway, when we reach close enough, the child stops me and says “Sir, mi go haffi ask you fi stop here, caah if mi mother see me a walk wid big man or stranger she go kill me!” So I ask her if she is certain to which she says “Yes, and if you come no further she go see you.” So I comply and bid her goodnight and she said thanks. I lingered and watched her turn a corner, wait to hear anything funny, and made my way home. However on my way home it struck me again that her mother could really possibly think something negative of me walking a child home in the dark. It stung on a personal level, but rationality lets me know on some level a parent would and should be truly worried about such a scenario. And I had to wonder was the child wise, was she silly to have risked a stranger as escort? Should she have walked alone in the dark? Should she have waited indefinitely at a shop full of unfamiliar folk?

When I think of the Trinidadian pedophile who video himself with a 5 year old and I cry. I think of all the young girls and boys in Paradise before 20, I cry. I think of the elders and innocents that died in Paradise as collateral damage in the battles of boys, I cry. When I think of my community in decay and the councillor is my cousin, I cry. When I think of Africa and a continent being exploited, I cry. When I think of India with the most poor people in the world, I cry. When I think of the U.S.A. and that on average the police there kill one black male roughly every 28 hours, I cry. When I think of the Earth that my daughter will inherit, I cry. When I think of a people slaved for 500 years without pay, I cry. When  When I think of the regime of apartheid that Israel has wrought on Palestine, I cry. When I think of how long I have despised the way Israel operates in Palestine only to learn Yannick is a Hebrew name and Pessoa is a Spanish/Portuguese Jewish name, the irony makes me cry.

I see my nation wracked with sickness from its head to its feet and in need of healing. I won’t put the headlines in front of you at this time. You read the news and already know the great social, economic, moral and spiritual issues facing Jamaica. “How will we continue to live?” Will you be overwhelmed by social change and sin and give in what the majority feel is acceptable? Or will you continue to stand firm in your convictions and try to live by a logic or your spiritual belief?

The world is changing. Jamaica is not the same nation it once was. I can only present the case to you.


About the author: Yannick Nesta Pessoa B.A. is Jamaica’s first blogger, a Social/Community Activist and Law Student at Utech Western Jamaica. Follow on Twitter at @yahnyk. Reply to yannickpessoa@gmail.com

The Epidemic that is Violence in Jamaica

Jamaica is violent let us not get antsy and make up clever story like Anansi just true a white woman said it on CNN... Also is violence defined strictly by murder and or violent crimes.... isn't violence broad and we meet it in many scopes and spheres... Yow mi live fi see man chop off man hand, people tripe spill on ground after abdomen stab, man march through Paradise with rifle in a umbrella and kill Zuggy, I have a host of friends that I grew up playing basketball with in Albion n Glendevon, a portion of them dead, so many dead friends from Gulf inna Norwood, around 2004 mi usually go dead yard weekly, and funeral like a social event... man did usually all a ask a who fah dead yard dis week, who fah funeral we a roll out pon yah now, mi all go a mi breddrin yard an look on his mirror an haffi ask "don a only funeral u an yuh ooman go" since 2004 mi see Gully dead a Paradise, Radeeka, Froggy, Delano, Buju, Jobe, Jucky, Shorty, Baboo, Kerry-Gaye... And that is just down the road, mi nah talk bout mi wider circles... We say as part of our religion spare not the rod or spoil the child... Didn't we have the 3rd highest murder rate with the most churches per square mile... Violence is inculcated here, men glorify gun an equate it with their penis, Kartel a major icon is in jail for perpetuating violence, many popular songs are violence Fyah 105, play "a bwoy shoulda dead but di Berretta jam, scheme hot today mi a di weather man," no amount of euphemism can not make not feel the evil chill when he says that so many time mi live fi see man come fi man an gun stick, 9 milli jam.. Man get way an ppl a scatter, mi feel robbed of normalcy in Jamaica... Carla Moore said in a long a go article seh we are victims of an unsaid Civil war in Jamaica, a shell shocked citizenry, we live with a numbness to violence, some time we n'even can see how violent we are. Which country you know man hail dem one another as dawg, johncrow, pussy hole, batty man, how ugly man come yah, come yah yuh ole bombo ole a long time mi nuh see a dutty raas like you. We hail in deep gutteral basal voices. Camara Brown and Thura once schooled me on the theory of "culpability" and Jamaica's penchant for violence. Yuh fuck with me I beat u up, mi fuck around police beat mi up, mi beat mi gal if shi slip, mi beat yute if him chat, slave master beat mi fi work Bible seh mi fi beat, So as Kartel said... Beaten beaten dats why mi doah bow or go prayer meeting... So now tell mi why we Vex over the violent speech, we deh pon spike TV splendidly for our women's use crates to beat each other, we on vice TV fi crime, we name shower posse abroad fi deh kill ppl in showers. I have grown immune to callous expressions like suck yuh ma... If so if so... How are we not vile? How we find cause to pretend... We have great qualities but we must come to terms with the dark aspects of our collective Jamaican personality! If Jamaica's violence is in pockets as Fae Ellington proposes in her defense of Jamaica and violence, those that think in such way best know then that it is then literally in every one of our collective pockets, pants pockets and all!

A Letter to Dorothy Maud Thompson

Remembering Dorothy

"He who learns must suffer, and even in our deep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop on the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God"~Aeschylus

Dearest Grand Ma,

I am sorry I couldn't have read my piece about you at your funeral, I had so much to say and I felt it would take forever, and every time I thought on speaking at the moment to speak, I became overwhelmed with emotion, and still do until this moment when I think of you. You were a monument in my life and the tree under which I could always shelter. It's been a year now and it still hard to know you are not here, and sometimes I think I tell myself you still are here and it is how I handle the reality. I am so glad you met Kyrha, and will never forget the day you took her picture from me and I couldn't get it from you and gazed at it all day and told me how beautiful she was, and I am glad she loved you. She speaks of you often and recalls how you were protective of her and saying in you grannified voice "don't run outside," "where you going with you naked bottom," or simply "come touch mi nuh, hold mi hand." She refers to you now as the ancestor she knew.

KeeKee and her Great Grand Ma

These days when she sleeps with Juilette, I remember all the nights I slept beside you,and would listen to you conversations with Aunt Elise on the old telephone with the round dial. How my mind would wonder in the dark beside you, to what England looked like and what Tate Street was like in the days gone by that you were speaking of, listening to you discuss politics, and say "YES... AT YOU" How I wondered about the Jamaica you described, was it like the pictures on your wall? How I imagined the Kendal Crash as you recounted it, and Hurricane Charley... how I imagined Diamond as an orchard filled with "Milli" mango. So too I wonder if Kyrha is imbibing yesteryear with Juilette and taking imaginative psychic journeys.

I still have my first memory of you solid in my mind, with you arms on your hip, standing in the doorway before the hallway to the kitchen, under a wooden clock with a metal face with flourishes painted on it, and you were talking to Juilette and Roy at the door the Veranda, and you asked them if they had come for me, and I said "bye Dada" for Dada was the name I called you, and I turned around and looked at Roy and realized he was Daddy, and I had given you his name, and having a guilty feeling as though I had cheated him of a title, for in my tiny mind at the time it was a title akin to God as that is what you represented to me a matriarchal start, a genesis of sorts, and I had established in my tiny mind that you had come from a more primordial place than Juilette and Roy and you would be my cognitive ambassador into yesteryear, you would forever be my marker in history, as though 1919 was the year my life began as well, and every event in history that happened after 1919 would be an event that I would wonder where you were or what you were doing or where was Tommy at that time or Carol or Juilette, where did you live at that time, what schools they would have been attending at the time etc... I doubt Kyrha's connection with you was powerful enough to start her at 1919, but there is hope, like I said before... she remembers you well and even carried yuh name go abroad, speaking of you as though you were still alive, and when asked about she responds you are in heaven and you are her ancestor now! So it seems you are on your way to joining some pantheon of God's or gods, even if it's just our personal familial pantheon. And even she doesn't start 1919, I hope she at least can start at 1952 now that she sleeps with Juilette.

I don't know why but I feel charged with keeping an eye on your children and nieces and nephews. I wont say I am doing the best job, as many days and nights I wonder if we will or have already become scattered and dispersed like seeds in the wind. Not as connected to a central hub as when you were here. I am glad your friend Nurse Donaldson, comes by and I think she fills the gap you left for Juilette.

Here is another thing... since your departure, my eye and mind has turned to things like the senior citizen's association and their activities. I followed Nurse Don, on one of her excursions, was a decent experience, but so so heart rending to see even at ages of 70 and upward human being frail and on the edge of existence and to me a bit between worlds closer to a spiritual place, than they are here in the material, and yet they push on with some sort of effort some sort of activism, making a difference to community and society, impacting babies, another set of entities fresh from the spiritual plane and frail to this material plane...

I am trying to keep up with your SOCIALISM and SOCIAL Activism... but to be honest it is much disheartening and disenchanting to see what your beloved PNP has become, a far cry from the Manley's, a far cry from the veranda philosophers and ideologues that shuffled about the Republic of MoBay in your heyday... ushering in Howard Cooke as a political staple in Western Jamaica, far cry from Marxism and street side debates on proletariats and bourgeoisie... far cry from the free education "UWI 'I am black and I am proud' middle class intellectuals", a far cry from Rock River Clarendon type grassroots, a far cry from collective action, a far cry from people's cooperative, far cry from the left even the face of modern leftist successes. Its a popularity contest of personalities and populists pandering to the public with only personal gain in mind, power and position. I am sometime tempted to believe we will never see any political revivalism of that conscious 70's Black Power, street intellectual order. But I press on in hope...

Shortly after before your funeral Syreeta (Ms Ritz) and I were discussing you and your impact and your legacy, something she wasn't so familiar with. The concept is this... you are the first mega star weh mi know... but I think she may having been wondering how so, so this is the perspective I let her be privy to...

[8/25/2014, 6:35 PM] The Emperor's Attorney: Isah... jah know the security n warmth she was,
[8/25/2014, 6:36 PM] Syreeta: Ok
[8/25/2014, 6:36 PM] Syreeta: Sigh she was
[8/25/2014, 6:36 PM] Syreeta: We had our moments; we used to reason n ting
[8/25/2014, 6:37 PM] The Emperor's Attorney: Mi know she n everybody do dem one a way... a di general enuh
[8/25/2014, 6:38 PM] The Emperor's Attorney: Some ppl know bob marley or manley or obama... I n I know dorothy thompson
[8/25/2014, 6:38 PM] Syreeta: Ye fa real star
[8/25/2014, 6:39 PM] The Emperor's Attorney: A she mi see from mad ppl to pj to howard cooke to manley etc come a 15 hoyt drive..
[8/25/2014, 6:42 PM] The Emperor's Attorney: She a mi real icon... n mi a tell u in real real life like mi feel honored n proud to be her offspring n descendant...
[8/25/2014, 6:43 PM] The Emperor's Attorney: She build bare mega n mini star as her bloodline
[8/25/2014, 6:43 PM] Syreeta: Ja know cuz is real talk dat
[8/25/2014, 6:45 PM] The Emperor's Attorney: She to mi build tommy monty n roy as 3 mini megastar... n camara grow under her hand and do ar ting... n mi jus never meet more real or potent characters or smarter ppl dan mi family members an who surround me that she build or bless up
[8/25/2014, 6:46 PM] The Emperor's Attorney: All dj is a story n a colorful character
[8/25/2014, 6:46 PM] Syreeta: Dat is so true
[8/25/2014, 6:48 PM] Syreeta: N so many people luv n rate har like its amazing to me
[8/25/2014, 6:48 PM] Syreeta: Daddy tell mi how much yute she help n raise dat wasn't fi har own
[8/25/2014, 6:48 PM] Syreeta: Dem type a people nu mek again
[8/25/2014, 6:50 PM] The Emperor's Attorney: Parri as a yute every weh mi go inna paradise n norwood mi unda watch n protection all who mi nuh know seh miss thompson granny or mi nuh waan unnu touch im dis one yah a fi ms thompson
[8/25/2014, 6:51 PM] The Emperor's Attorney: As yute I used to wonder how so many ppl know her...
[8/25/2014, 6:51 PM] Syreeta: Yea
[8/25/2014, 6:52 PM] The Emperor's Attorney: Even in paradise the amount of ppl weh sit mi down an seh yute ms thompson do dis fi dem she a di backbone of the community etc
[8/25/2014, 6:57 PM] The Emperor's Attorney: U have a don up yah weh police kill name goosey... a rasta inna him late 40s an a eediat waan war over him ooman... n from di man a pass n smaddy tell him she tusto waan war of ms t gran son over dis lilly bar gal..  di man nuh know mi in person enuh... di man fly inna di bar n rush.di man n tell mi seh no man cyaah do mi nutten n mi nuh no man no talk u granny do more dan enough... an seh come on out.. rolling in fat suv
[8/25/2014, 7:00 PM] Syreeta: Wow
[8/25/2014, 7:01 PM] Syreeta: Dats so crazy
[8/25/2014, 7:03 PM] The Emperor's Attorney: Anytime mi waan name drop or draw rank certain way pon ppl... dorothy a di most powerful ting mi can pull pon... when mi n ppl all deh reason n dem nuh know mi n seh yow dah rasta meds high... some paradise smaddy always jump n seh man a tru ms thompson gran man di whole a dem brain big u nuh see thompson forehead
[8/25/2014, 7:05 PM] Syreeta: I'm not surprised that so amazing to me tho...

Speak Truth to Power!

Created with Kwote!

Rubble and debris from everyday thoughts!

If you think I can be pigeon holed... meet the Indomitable Yannick Nesta Pessoa... even if mi nuh popular, even if a nuh 10 million likes, mi sure seh mi Mother, mi wife and mi dawta still love me (even if Keez never waan hold mi hand to skool this morn)... mi sure seh mi real and mi keep mi heart clean as is posible fi mi do... nah mean... whether you or Mr. Big Neck never see it... I wasn't marketing myself I was busy being real, and doing real stuff... without award or accolade... I was building community facebook pages... and being immersed in community life... Youth Club or Football Team or 6-A-Side or Residents Assoc. all the Senior Citizens Assoc. before mi reach old age... before Blog Awards and social media awards, I was blogging it and repping as JA's first blogger... Repping in the Western Mirror for Young working people every where as The Montegonian Friday evening to Friday evening... learning in the streetside University hot off the heels of learning all sort of philosophy from the UWI Mona... rolling through the years... poet... cartoonist, freelance journalist, entrepreneur, community resource person... now I find myself at Utech doing an LLB for a million reasons and continuing my fight for a better MoBay and a better community, so that Jamaica may under God, increase in beauty, fellowship and prosperity, and play her part in advancing the welfare of the whole human race... doesn't end with an election, it doesn't end or begin with politics, to nuh shrink wrap in red or green...

Now mi believe seh mi a genuinely a genuine decent beautiful human being... inside and out... and mi nah seh so from place of arrogance or ego... yeh mi feel like yeh mi might slightly edgy, slightly angry, slightly intense, slightly eccentric, rough round the edges yeh... and if you truly know me... then you know me electrifying.. illuminating and edifying, and when given the chance to speak my words make the cinema and theatre appear right where you are... almost every waking moment of life is an adventure to me and for the most part my heart and soul are always a glow... my mind always on fire and my conscience light... so yes I know I am beautiful human being... aren't you too?

Nah stop all when mi dead... mi have duppy and pickney and inspired ones fi do this... as an African domiciled in Xaymaca i seh this still without apology Jamaica land we love, and Africa Unite... I don't need any likes, feel free to like if you feel thus compelled mi nah be anti-social, but a nuh dat mi deh pon, caah Google Blogspot/Blogger never had like buttons when mi started writing and graffiti the internet and cyberspace...

MY THEORY ON PNP'S MUST WIN!

A Fairly Bio-Historical Thesis and Simple Treatise!

Watch yah... JLP nah no chance... if dem show we suppm we deh yah fi MATCH it... imagine.. halfwaytree look so an mi an fi mi entourage nuh di deh... wah u a seh...

I will never pretend seh PNP perfect but a dem mi go ever vote fah and a dem mi go try guide and cuss till dem get it write... mi wi write a million letter to the editor and advice suggest and cuss, but watch yah mi nuh inna nutten wid JLP... who dis rasta... yow a wah u a seh. Busta weh seh iron fist... man... mi Granny born 1919... mi sleep in a bed with her, say mi times table and lissen story as she walk me down the streets of history. I've read a million books, divining the pages of history... all mi si dat mek sense to mi in the long march forward... mi granny get build and educated by UNIA and Garvey, Garvey = self reliance PPP etc...

Manley co-opt that political energy, but still under pnp self reliance and such concepts persist... hence... mi Granny when garvey get shub back press fwd wid PNP and mi see michael manley meet him, mi end up sight Rasta, Rasta and JLP a nuh fren, by the time mi did reach sociology at A level... all when mi teach a laaf an bun mi out mi pick SOCIALISM and COMMUNISM, concepts native to Africa by the way!

All when teacher a SHUB globalization inna the 90's push NEO LIBERALISM, I man resist and bun dat. My Mother was a social worker inna the 70's under Manley era and my Mother went to university UWI when Manley brought forward free education...

Hence mi a di result of sensible PNP policy and courtesies, mi direct result of the scope and reach and testimony of Garvey... so mi live this and mi read through the pages of history and see where books bear witness to this truth an concur wah mi DNA a seh from 1919 through to the 70's...

Till mi manifest in flesh and grow in a house weh Marcia Griffiths and Bob Andy "Young Gifted and Black" play every day, weh mi a listen Bob Marley to Bob Dylan... mi get fi know of Nyerere... mi Mother a Christian mi nuh know of no bigger socialist than Jesus.... charity, equality....

Dem SHUB globalization and neo-liberalism pon mi all the way into UWI mona... an even then man resist, till mi live fi see 2007, GLOBALIZATION collapse, neo liberalism was too liberal and liberated economic monsters to wreak havoc.. mi get fi meet sensible thinkers weh a put up resistance too know seh neo liberalism is neo colonialism.... hence and therefore I KNOW THIS... JLP nuh mek it... try kill RASTA a Coral Gardens a conflict mi have DNA linked inas mi have a cousin that was the philosophical under pinning of nuff a di ideology in the Mobay rasta movements and conflict at the time and then let us not forget "Back To"...

With every fiber of my being I know the way forward for this country MUST be through anything, any vehicle or vector that can carry the ideas of Rasta/GARVEY to Jamaica, right now PNP a the major vehicle to do that, I also hope all independents thinkers rise too and do dem ting fi shake up the status quo... Astor Black and Haile Mikael... it is in those veins of ideas of Garvey and Rasta that any hope or sensible ideas for indigenous and the mass of Jamaican people ever come from... simple!

JLP has an image that seems to represents... NEO-liberalism, CIA(go watch youtube), the 80's Drugs and Cocaine, ONE DON, Tivoli which can never be a model to replicate across Jamaica, Daryl Vaz and him poko poko face screaming at me as minister of info and a bad mi up thru television... rumours that Jim Brown shot Bob Marley for you know who... the image that JLP is an elite of ruling brown people and descendants of the plantocracy cannot be easily shaken out of the Jamaican consciousness.. the only positive image mi can think of for JLP is Chris Tufton... and they seem to forever pigeon hole him... I wish Portia would give him a call.

So I just a chant for REPUBLIC, REPARATION, REFORM (Land, Political & Electoral), CCJ, OPEN SOURCE!!! That Jamaica need now fi mek some major leaps forward!

Lessons Learnt from the Princess who wanted a Princess Yo-yo!

This is a post dedicated to my daughter and some of the things she has taught me as well as allowed me to remember and rediscover. For a few years before her birth I was in a state of some kind of depression and doldrums, a funk as it were, overwhelmed with failures. The failure of having not produced any literary master piece as yet, not getting any where with poetry, no where with art, no comic book produced, no documentary, no cartoon, no animation, no car, no major tech infusion, hobbling on a pitch patch income, fumbling from PC to PC and laptop to laptop. Yeah there may have been some successes... as small as they seemed in my eye, and probably in the grand picture of Jamaican super start success hypes. Yeah I was the first Jamaican Blogger, and probably the first or longest running Jamaican blogger, but what is the value and who cares?

Sure The Montegonian did a lovely stint in the Western Mirror which I believe changed the dynamic of Column writing in Western Jamaica and imbued western Journalism with more confidence and vigor. Sure I would hear my ideas in articles popping up in Mobay's Chamber of Commerce on the mouths of other people with no credit to me, which is not a problem to me, as long as it makes this city better. Yeah but in the age of so many hot writers erupting everyday from Jamaica on the world stage, what is it worth when the world stage and so many platform seem closed to me and the less financially endowed. Sure I have been championing and been an early pioneer using Linux and Open Source in Montego Bay and Western Jamaica on PC's, Laptops and Desktops, but what is that worth in a country that worships at the alter of Microsoft and Windows, yet not knowing Linux holds up their tech world on Android phones and slavishly carrying the tech world on servers everywhere. What is it worth when you champion your community and any social cause worth the activism, only to be neglected by NGO's because we aren't PR material or the poster child for the worst community or we just don't have enough dead bodies on our streets, to have media focus on Kingston and the colourful personalities that catch their eye and fancy, and this happens no matter how conscious the media agency seems or pretends to be. What is it worth to be another unsung hero... to fight the black struggles in the best ways you know how and to have so little verbal reward or any kind of accolade and close to no meal ticket. What was it worth to be vanguard and forerunner, when every forerunner only holds the lead to be in a lonely place and relegated to pariah.

What was I to do... worn thin and wounded in spirit?

Enter my Daughter... life in abundance, come to reinvigorate me and teach me new lessons on life and to remember the lessons and ideas I forgot long ago.

Lesson 1. Simple things can keep us happy: The Princess Yo-Yo 101

~Now this lesson I learned last December. I am not a Christmas believer nor do I believe a Christ was born on Dec 25. However Nativity, Christmas Carols, Trade Winds those tings make me redolent, and is a season I cherished as a child for the bells, the x-mas plays, cool chilly breezes, the yards smelling of paint, fresh cut lawns, pretty silver moons, astronomy with my father under clear skies, being filled with the sense that the world was slowing down for reasons such as love, family and in-gatherings of family and extensions of family. A season that as child wished would never end. So it is that spirit I try to hang onto and recapture for my daughter. A feeling and emotion about the season, not necessarily connected to trees, or lights, or presents, but connected with the presence of special people. So when she became swept up with the season last year and she requested a present, Super Daddy has to answer the call. Now, for a few days I twisted my brain to find a nice present and thought it maybe it'd be something costly. Would it be a tablet, a Nabi, a electronic gadget of some sort, surely not clothes... After not thinking of anything, I asked her what she wanted. "A Princess Yo-Yo!" 

WHAT! A princess yo-yo... hmmm it seemed a unique and odd request and one that maybe would stump me. For this was a request at the crux of roads... Yo-yoes are for boys, I hadn't imagined that the 21st century girl could be a Tom Boy Princess... another strange anomaly. HMMMMM HMMMM HMMMM... so specialized, it sounds like that may stretch my imagination, where in Mobay was I gonna find a princess yo-yo... if one even existed. And how much would this cost now... please let it not be over $2000, as mi just nuh have it, fi maths more than that. HMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I was confounded. Being the presumption ass, I assumed that such wonders as a possibly expensive and specialized toy like a princess yo-yo had to be located at Fontana or MegaMart or some such location... of I went... wasting gas to traverse from Paradise to Mobay's likkle farrin... out by Fairview! Only to not find the prized princess yo-yo there. After giving the issue some more brain power... I came up with Sangster's Book Store... so off to Harbour Street to park again and foot it to Sangster's. After scouring Sangster's seeing an varied assortment of $1000 odd Yo-yoes, I was heartened somewhat, but I hadn't found the Princess Yo-yo yet. Fine fine... lemme walk the town in one last hope to see what's up, only to realize hmmmm Henderson's in renovating... lemme check it out... as I enter it immediately greets me, a $435.00 pink Princess Yo-yo! My word... that's it $435.00 bet she just uses it once and discards it... I've seen kids do it a thousand times right.

3 Months later in March I was still de-tangling yo-yo chords and explaining an assortment of tricks. Hence I had learned that she really did ask for what she wanted, was happy when she got it, and really tried to learn to use it and understand it. Hmmm much more than I had given her credit for. So my daughter reminds me of the Sizzla song now... "Simplicity we use to survive, many find it difficult cause them ignorant and dumb." The hold incident too reminded me of a time when I was young, it was a Sunday, and as my mother and grand mother sat reading the papers, I didn't realize my granny had stopped reading the newspaper and was watching me swing on the grill at the door, and when I realized she was, she looked at me and said, "A see seh yuh come fi mek yuh owna sun shine." It was a while before i understood what she meant, but Kyrha's made me re-learn that idea.

Lesson 2. Everyone has their own mind: On White Folk and Other Philosophy- death, afterlife god mother nature

Now when it comes to life and learning as it pertains to youth, my belief is that, I ought not hold much back, and if I do, it is only in the interest of keeping things simple. I won't lie or make up fairy tales. Lies, myth and fairy tales I believe hinder a child's development, and denies them the chance to intuit deeper levels of knowledge and understanding. Fairy tales hinder humanity's collective gainful comprehension of the universe.

However explaining gravity, why we fall, robots, machines, sleep, imagination, digestion, the eye, even sex and how she came here, seems so so so much simpler when one contends with explaining GOD, JESUS, HEAVEN, MOTHER NATURE, AFTER LIFE, SLAVERY AND RACISM among other metaphysical and social mysteries.

Most amazing of all though is that this little  year old processes my thoughts and what I tell her and she doesn't just imbibe it and says it is so because Daddy's says so... she challenges ideas in her mind. I'll soon explain.

My doctrines on life are a scientific approach to questions, in social spiritual matters in my Ras Tafari I employ Marcus Garveys's fiery Afrocentrism and pan-africanism tempered by Haile Selassie's cerebral modus operandi and diplomacy. So when I have to touch on touchy issues of Race and slavery I as advised by listening to Martin Luther King Jr's treatise on his little daughter and fun town, which I listen to often via Youtube.

So when Africa comes up and how or why we are Africans and how we came to be in Jamaica, I didn't shy away from explaining the horror of slavery and the evils wrought on us by white Europeans. As MLK Jr suggested I tried not to be bitter. I think I may have been a little. Anyway... it so happens one day white Christian folk visit her school, when I pick her up, she immediately comes to me and says guess what Daddy... You know I think you are wrong about white people... not all white people are bad... I met some good ones at school today... I couldn't contain the laughter... this child retained the race conversations and had borne it in mind and challenged my information with her experiences... I was truly impressed. There is no brain washing this one. Anyway... after she repeats her point and says "is true enuh Daddy, is true!" I say to her don't worry we'll discuss this again when you are older, and hopefully then you'll see my point more clearly.

Lesson 3. What Father is and means: Pickney Proverbs & Prov 15 vs 5

So on becoming a father I have had to examine my experiences being fathered, what I liked, what I want to improve upon from my father. But I have also had to examine the role I have played to people I have semi- or part-time fathered. If mentoring is important, the power of the role... what power has been invested in father.

More difficult to examine has been how Jamaica deals with father and how harshly we are critiqued and derided by society, even as our stats improve and some stats are coming in to indicate women have to some extent aided in undermining Jamaican Masculinity... the Jacket phenomenon, the bleaching, the long hair and expenses, the gimmi mentality, relentless challenge to male authority, the belief in the better-ness of white notions and displays and examples of masculinity.

I've also had to open up to my daughters notions of father, dada, papa... the fixer of things, the knower of things, her companion encyclopedia and philosopher, the backdrop against which she bounces ideas and deciphers reality. The daughter who believes father is there for super/supra natural protections. To examine what this young femininity means to man, what really is the role of man, what do I teacher her of masculinity, what do I do with her Tom Boyism... her Princessism... how do I prepare for the future with a truly helpful vision that equips her for all that may come, how do I also prepare her for launch as my first emissary and arrow shot and cast into the future, my messenger and ambassador to the future? How? How do I combine organic ideology, african spirituality, technology, post modern philosophy, ecological livity, humanism and not this transhuman future of black widows, Iron men and people with electric hearts and dreams of electric sheep, visions and ultrons??? How do I sow Marcus Garvey into everyday existence and merge the ethics of Haile Selassie?

Most of all I have had to examine everyone who has played some sort of mentor or fatherly role... my Father, grand Father, older friends, elders, sages and all... I have had to even consider if I am comfortable with God being a father... should it maybe not be better that it be ISIS and not some nondescript holy ghost, and what social ethos would only give us a God father, and no mother or reduce her to a ghost... and find some way to sire sons (the sons of god came down and took of themselves wives of the daughters of men) without women, to make man give birth to the first woman!

In many ways my daughter more than anyone has taught me about Father, through the gift of fatherhood.

Lesson 4. Live!

I don't know another soul that gives meaning to the words Verve and Vivacious and Effervescent!

From the moment I met this girl in a tummy kicking, I couldn't have met her before that, I am not privy to the woman's early knowing that her body is inhabited and her womb is occupied. Yep! I met her with a kick and the information that she constantly moved to the noise of children and voices on the outside world! And as I sat by the womb waiting night by night... I had a sense of knowing that this was someone full of spunk...

It would come as no surprise then that some of her favourite songs are "This Girl is on Fire" and  Katy Perry's "Roar"... She ravages through cartoons and her favourites change often... there was the Avatar "Ang" phase, then Korra... the Doc McStuffins, Cat in the Hat, Peppa Pig, My Little Pony, Strawberry Shortcake, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, now much to my chagrin it's Monster High and Sabrina the Teenage Witch!

But that I think is a crucial lesson she has taught me... sometimes I spend too much time being cerebral and thinking about things and there consequences rather than just doing... and that is her thing... impulsive impetus... just do it.. live, with a sense of absolute fearlessness at that. So if she can do it... why can't I! She also brought home this Garvey quote..

Fear is a state of nervousness fit for children and not men. When man fears a creature like himself he offends God, in whose image and likeness he is created. Man being created equal fears not man but God. To fear is to lose control of one's nerves; one's will, to flutter, like a dying fowl, losing consciousness, yet alive.
(Marcus Garvey)

Imagine a 5 year old teaching I N I bout fearlessness!

Lesson 5. Serendipity Sanguinity and Telepathic Connection

When I was a little boy, sitting int back of cars in the rain, I'd look at the wipers and imagine they were two children chasing each other or fighting, throwing water at each other. It's just one of those little thoughts your child mind produces and you forget as you get older. I was blown away one evening whilst driving home in the rain, she says "Mommy and Daddy! Yuh know those two wipers look like two children fighting and throwing water at each other, two rude children... dem rude enuh! Don't dem look like dat Mommy?"

I had to give the car a 1 minute stop and let the years come back... then let the strange feeling of synchronism and time-loop or -warp sink in and settle and explain it to her and her Mommy why I had paused.

I think this is a lesson on the metaphysics of things, the unknown and unexplained, a sense that their are greater psycho-spiritual things going on, we are more than we know... paranormal, in search of... STRANGE BUT TRUE...

The 7 Health Benefits of JACKFRUIT!

Since I haven't blogged in awhile I thought I'd just jump on the latest Jamaican and Caribbean  blogging fads, cool lists and the health benefits of under examined Jamaican foods. Yippeee... I picked Jackfruit, because I hate it and how it smells and I haven't seen it in the blogosphere yet. But I always wondered if i did eat it though, wow it would be a whopper food solution... its just so hugemungous...

So before I jump into the list here is the usual summary and breakdown I'll swipe from Wikipedia or a composite of authorities:

The jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus), also known as jack tree, jakfruit, or sometimes simply jack or jak^[6] is a species of tree in the mulberry and fig family (Moraceae).
It is native to parts of South and Southeast Asia, and is believed to have originated in the southwestern rain forests of India, in present-day Goa, Kerala, coastal Karnataka, andMaharashtra.^[7] The jackfruit tree is well suited to tropical lowlands, and its fruit is the largest tree-borne fruit,^[8] reaching as much as 35 kg (80 lb) in weight, 90 cm (35 in) in length, and 50 cm (20 in) in diameter.^[9]The jackfruit tree is a widely cultivated and popular food item in throughout the tropical regions of the world. Jackfruit is the national fruit of Bangladesh, by name Kanthal (কাঁঠাল) in Bengali language.^[10] The Jackfruit tree can produce about 100 to 200 fruits in a year. The Jackfruit is the largest tree-borne fruit in the world. Its weight can range from from 10 lbs to over 100 lbs.

Jackfruit is a one of a kind tropical fruits, recognized for its unique shape, size, and fruity flavor which is akin to Wrigley's Juicy Fruit gone wild... its massive bulb can be spot from a distance. The fruit is smell sweetie-sweetie, and much like an over ripe breadfruit in taste. It shares a fragrant commonality with other tropical fruits such as durian, banana etc., But suprising most of all is its health benefits. It is rich in energy, dietary fiber, minerals, and vitamins and free from saturated fats or cholesterol, making it one of the healthy late summer  early autumn natural foods to dive into! So here is the  list:

1. Energy Booster: 100 g of edible jackfruit bulbs provide 95 calories. It's made of soft, easily digestible fleshy bulbs made up of simple sugars like fructose and sucrose that when eaten replenishes energy and revitalizes the body instantly.
2. Dietary Fiber: It's a good bulk laxative. The fiber content helps protect the colon mucous membrane by binding to and eliminating cancer-causing chemicals from the colon.
3. Vitamin-A:  Vitamin A is required for maintaining eyes as well as the integrity of mucusa and skin. Consumption of natural fruits rich in vitamin-A, and carotenes has been found to protect from lung and oral cavity cancers.
4. B-complex group of vitamins: Forget about the RedBull... this fruit... it contains very good amounts of vitamin B-6 (pyridoxine), niacin, riboflavin, and folic acid. It is rare that a fruit is rich in B-complex vitamins
5. Vitamin-C: Consumption of foods rich in vitamin C helps the body develop resistance against infectious agents and scavenge harmful free radicals.
6. Minerals: It's a good source of potassium, magnesium, manganese, and iron. Potassium is an important component of cell and body fluids that helps controlling heart rate and blood pressure.
7. Protein: Jackfruit seeds are rich in protein. In general, the seeds are gathered from the ripe fruit, sun-dried then roasted. Boiled jackfruit seeds are also edible. Often compared to Brazil nuts, they are quite commonly used in curry in the Indian state of Kerala.

In Defense of Chronixx: Obama may really be a Waste Man!

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in the moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

Martin Luther King Jr. 1963

Chronixx's now famous post!

The press is supposed to be the "Guardian of the Republic" and the "Pillar of the Democracy," the press is the only industry explicitly referenced in the U.S. constitution. How is then, that the press and media in Jamaica and abroad seem so spineless in critiquing President Obama? Have they abdicated their role in giving voice to the voiceless and airing the VOX POPULI... Chronixx's comments echo a sentiment that cuts across a broad spectrum of Jamaicans, such as myself and various communities who are unwilling to look the other way simply because Mr. Obama is a black president. Such criticism of Obama is not unique to Jamaica and Jamaicans, but black academics and intellects everywhere. 

All this while in America itself under the Obama administration the plight of Black Americans has worsened:  A recent interview on MSNBC’s “Meet the Press,” NAACP CEO and president, Ben Jealous, told the show’s host that black Americans “are doing far worse” than when President Obama first took office. “The country’s back to pretty much where it was when this president started,” Jealous told show host David Gregory. “White people in this country are doing a bit better. Black people are doing far worse.”  Dr. Julianne Malveaux of Your Black World recently wrote that the Obama Administration needs to speak out more about existing racial disparities and persistent problems in black unemployment.

The Black Diaspora has seen the US elect thousands of African American local and state officials and re-elect the first black president. But Obama seems to have proven just a symbol, symbolic and nothing more. Nothing real, nothing substantial, nothing progressive as it pertains to the plight of blacks.

The media is slow and unwilling to note that our black leaders are dithering. Floundering. Flailing... failing and falling even. Symbolism supersedes the fact that black leadership has few or no victories to boast for the seventies, the eighties, the nineties or the new century, apart from their own illustrious careers. 

Obama seems a symbol used to nullify and quiet the analytic black mind and voice. "Nigger shut up we got a black president now!" 

Who in Jamaica or the media is willing to look past the fact that he is JUST a black president and willing to examine the fact that the black role model president conducts weekly “Terror Tuesday” meetings in the White House basement at which he dispatches drones to murder and special forces to kidnap and torture in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and across the African continent. It matters not at all that the Department of Justice prosecutes whistle blowers instead of war criminals, or that black military officials and diplomats like Susan Rice are up to their armpits in African blood. Mr. President highlighted the fact that our government meets behind our backs, in secret and signs agreements we don't know about, but what of his secret meetings.

The black political class at home and abroad is utterly self-interested. It cannot begin to mobilize black communities to demand higher wages, a massive jobs program to relieve unemployment, a new paradigm of urban economic development that isn't just moving poor people out of neighborhoods and richer ones in. It seems our egotistical black intelligentsia can't begin to make these things happen because foisting itself and its own advancement off as “representing” the black oppressed masses is the beginning and the end of who they are and what they do. They are not truly about the black diaspora and its plight, they do not truly care to ease the existential condition of his brothers, neighbours and friends.

For them, the election and and re-election of Barack Obama is the end of black history. The be all and end all of our history. Addressing black unemployment, pervasive economic injustice, opposing the neo-liberal,capitalist, globalist, transnational agenda of privatization and austerity put forth not just by the black president, but by an entire layer of black thinkers are, in their language not pragmatic or “realistic.”

President Obama denied our request to exonerate Marcus Garvey, he is more willing to lobby for homosexuals and their agenda, than the plight of black people. He neglects Africa, send troops instead of Doctors like Cuba did to combat Ebola in Africa... Netanyahu just disrespected him in his own country, I see no reason to rejoice nor genuflect at his arrival. He allowed and sanctioned the murder of Qaddafi the last defender of Africa, friend of Nelson Mandela, after inviting him to the U.S. and defending him in the face of public disapproval, he without congressional approval and with the help of Sarkozy and Nato murdered Qaddafi. In-spite of winning a Nobel peace prize... he has yet to close GITMO. I as a descendant of a UNIA member from the days of Marcus Garvey... a Jamaican who saw the havoc that is democrats neo-liberal agenda in the 90's, as a black man who sees today's social stagnation of the black race and our position as last economically, cannot support this man who says he is America's president!

 I support Chronixx in saying what he said. Sometimes, in order to follow our moral compass and/or our hearts, we have to make unpopular decisions or stand up for what we believe in. To those who would see Chronixx muzzled, I quote Neal Boortz: "Free speech is meant to protect unpopular speech. Popular speech, by definition, needs no protection."

And I close with a quote from President JFK to Mr. Obama, to our government and to the media:

Without debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed--and no republic can survive. That is why the Athenian lawmaker Solon decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy. And that is why our press was protected by the First Amendment-- the only business in America specifically protected by the Constitution- -not primarily to amuse and entertain, not to emphasize the trivial and the sentimental, not to simply "give the public what it wants"--but to inform, to arouse, to reflect, to state our dangers and our opportunities, to indicate our crises and our choices, to lead, mold, educate and sometimes even anger public opinion.