The Jamaican proverb about the dog that chokes because of greed came to mind as I kept thinking about the way in which the Holness administration appears to have mismanaged the coronavirus pandemic. Let me make it absolutely clear that my use of the proverb is not intended to suggest that the leadership of the... Continue Reading →
Suppose Sista P have big plan weh she naa tell nobody?
Supuoz Sista P av big plan we shi naa tel nobadi?
What if Sister P has big plans she's not telling anybody?
The reckless policy of the Housing Agency of Jamaica - converting protected lands into house spots - is a classic example of building on sand. This practice is not at all sustainable. It’s short-term thinking at its worst.
Last Thursday, as I watched Kevin MacDonald’s magical documentary on Bob Marley, I kept thinking of just how many talented people have emerged from Trench Town! That ghetto has certainly been a centre of intellectual ferment. If the University of the West Indies could find a way to recharge and transmit the creative energies of Trench Town in its heyday, we’d definitely be cooking.
In a culture of scarce benefits and educational spoils, it's not just the academically fit who survive. There are other factors that determine performance. In the war for places in 'good' schools, the wealthy usually beat the poor.
One of the issues that we are not really touching on at all, because I think it is central to the thing, is the whole question of the way in which blackness is perceived in Jamaican society. Because you get a paradox, see mi paradox here now, that racial purity, in the dictionary definition of mongrel is seen as something positive by white people. When dem mix up with other people is problem for dem.
Unfortunately, the analogy that he [Seaga] used, the word mongrel, had certain emotive overtones, resonances – that's why when you're dealing with oratory and political campaigning you have to be careful what you say.
Racial purity in Jamaica, especially if it's African racial purity, is seen as degeneration. It is a deviation from the high ideal of brownness.
The environment may very well become a hot election issue. If the JLP fails to show its true colours, orange might just prove to be the new green.
Jamaica Woman Tongue 