PARADISE LOST: Western Mirror Article-- May 2006

PARADISE LOST

“To Adam, Paradise was home. To the good among his descendants, home is paradise.”
By Augustus Hare… Source: Guesses At Truth, 1827.

“Ah, if only a few more massacres would suffice To sort it all out once and for all With so many uprisings and so many fallen heads In Paradise we should all be by now! But the wished-for Golden Age is endlessly postponed The gods remain so thirsty, they are insatiable Thus it is death, an endless cycle of death”
By Georges Brassens

“Woman hold her head and cry, ‘cause her son has been shot down in the street and die”
By Bob Marley

“Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die”
By Peter Tosh

Kill a man, and you are an assassin. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill everyone, and you are a god.
by Bishop Beilby Porteus… Source: Death (l. 154)

“Grave digger, when you dig my grave, could you make it shallow, so that I can feel the rain”
By Dave Matthews

“I'm not against the police; I'm just afraid of them.”
By Alfred Hitchcock


For most of you who don’t know Paradise except for your misinformed ideas about where Paradise is and what it is like, owing to sloppy news gathering and investigative journalism, that constantly tell you that Paradise is Norwood or part thereof, it is not. Paradise was a thriving, vibrant community long before Norwood was born or came to prominence. Paradise is as most should know, is nestled in the hills of our friendly city. Paradise is made up of several areas, they are Paradise Acres (The Drives), Paradise Crescent which extends through Mango Walk to …, there is Paradise Pen (a.k.a. Likkle Miami), and Paradise Heights (formerly Greens). Paradise and Norwood are sister communities but not one and the same. Paradise has many other sister communities which, however it is not to be confused with or should take the blame for, like Albion and Peace View. Paradise is only referred to as Paradise-Norwood, because some taxis ply a route to Norwood (of which there are several) that takes them through Paradise. On those taxis you will see Paradise-Norwood or Norwood via Paradise, the latter being the more appropriate label.

Paradise, while I was growing up was in reality a Paradise, and in most ways it still is today, except for the loss of innocence and the slow seeping presence, of small crimes and coke. Paradise has never been a community riddled by bullets, actually last year only one person was killed in Paradise and that was the first in many, many years and as it is the person was not from Paradise, but hiding here. But if you follow the media who continue to give incorrect names of communities (like Sunvalley-Melbourne as one when they are two, or Ironshore-Corral Gardens, or Hendon-Norwood and the media mix up goes on) you would believe Paradise is a plagued place. Paradise most of the times is filled with kids playing in lanes, football, cricket, baby cricket, bar pundits, and everyday people doing everyday things.

On May 26, 2006, I’m at Glen Skeng shop at the corner of Hoyte Drive and Paradise Crescent, and take a one minute walk to a “dead yard” just a little way down the road, and see one of my “parries” and hail and thing, nothing out of the norm, night life as usual, only to wake May 27, 2006, my birthday and hear that said “parri” is killed by police. News that hushed the community for most of the day, it was further compound by the death of the young Cornwall College footballer, son to one of the “Glen Skeng Crew’s” members, who lives on the corner of “Likkle Miami” and Loop Road. May 27, I didn’t get to enjoy much. But I’ve been playing the town crier as of late, warning people that all this social decay, if not addressed soon, will lead to people in their spheres of life dying, well it seems only people in my sphere are passing. Every weekend, instead of considering parties or Pier One, people in Paradise have to consider which dead yard.

Today tragedy forces us to contend with matters of death and finitude all too regularly. It seemed to me on May 27, that at reaching age 25 (quarter century as my mother promptly reminded me) in this day and age, I had reached old age from a certain perspective. If you consider that many black males don’t make it to 23. Look at the most wanted list I think the eldest person was 28. These nights stepping out on the streets you will be greeted by candles lining the streets like a church corridor. Paradise was once Paradise, but like most communities in Jamaica, and the third world; it is being eaten away by the agents of social decay like coke. The drugs, the guns, the gunshots, the lust for money are robbing people of happiness and children of their childhood. However for all that Paradise has lost, it still continues to lose its good name to media misnomers and bad journalism.

And as my city and my community continue to be rocked and rattled by disaster I close with a quote (Yes! Another one)and a verse from a song. “Many will have to die, not so that we can live, but just to see the mistake that those that die make” by Bob Marley. “Heaven's waiting / It's time to move on. / Crossing that bridge / With lessons I've learned. / Playing with fire / And not getting burned. / I may not know what you're going through. / But time is the space / Between me and you. / Life carries on... it goes on. / Just say die / And that would be pessimistic. / In your mind / We can walk across water. / Please don't cry / It's just a prayer for the dying.” Prayer for the dying by Seal. These are harder days… till next week.

R.I.P. “Face” & “Omroy” and condolences to “Miss Jan” and all who have lost someone close.

By Yannick Nesta Pessoa
(Writer / Graphic Designer)
B.A. in Philosophy

Webpage: http//yahnyk.blogspot.com
Résumé: http://www.geocities.com/cyber_yan/yannickresumeV2.htm
E-mail: yannickpessoa@gmail.com or yahnyk@hotmail.com or cyber_yan@yahoo.com