Dead Yard -- Just Starting the Book!

I have just started a fascinating book -- The Dead Yard -- that can be found on Amazon's UK website, but still isn't available in Jamaica.

It's written as a travelogue by an English writer, and at this point in the book he just interviewed a woman who failed in her return to Jamaica and had to return to London. He also interviewed a couple who returned to Jamaica and stayed, but remained separated from any of the local Jamaicans.

He quotes the woman who returned as saying that the country you leave is not the country you return to.

I found this profound, and oh so true.

For Jamaicans who return, it's absolutely futile to try to return to the country of one's youth. It simply does not exist, except in the mind's eye.

The returnee who expects Jamaica to match the mental image conjured up by history is a recipe for failure, which means that one is better off coming home with a flexible, open mind that is willing to enter into an entirely new experience.

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A new issue of FirstCuts

FirstCuts31 is now available, and it addresses one aspect of the Caribbean workplace that we cannot seem to surpass - our shared history of enslavement and indentureship.

The latest issue is entitled Accepting the Plantation and can be accessed by clicking on this link.

If you are not a current subscriber, you can become on within a few minutes by sending email to firstcuts@aweber.com

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