Beating Kids -- Trinidadian Style

After a few trips to Trinidad I have learned the local lingo for beating someone else -- "cut-ass" and "licks."

They are words that we don't use in Jamaica, but we readily understand the sentiment.

Over at the Alien in the Caribbean blog the author has written a thoughtful post on corporal punishment directed towards children. For all intents and purposes, she could be talking about any Caribbean territory as the one thing we all have in common is our history of enslaved people. The tradition has continued since then, and while the situation for women has much improved, children are still often the victims of home and school-based violence.

Click here to read: The Results of Consecutive Cut-Ass Generations.

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More on Skin Bleaching

No comment needed -- the video speaks volumes for itself on the topic of skin bleaching here in Jamaica. In this case the entire family bleaches.

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Taxi 1 vs Taxi 2

I just read an excellent article about 2 taxi-drivers in Uganda that applies perfectly to us here in Jamaica.

Here is a link to original article: http://appfrica.net/blog/archives/480 which actually has to do with "free-economics" or freeconomics, the act of giving away something for free in order to built trust and gain future business.

In essence he says that a poor business-man gives nothing away for free now because he believes that he will gain nothing for himself in the future. It truly applies to the Jamaican situation.

An excerpt from the article: Can Freeconomics Work in African Markets?[Part 1] by Jonathan Gosier

A Tale of Two Taxis

Many businesses chase immediate cash instead of things like customer loyalty and dependancy. they seem to operate to operate under the impression that their actions won’t catch up to them, and they probably won’t…until there’s a competitor.

I’ve heard a number of stories about how one mobile phone provider here in Uganda (they recently changed their name) would abuse their customers to no end. Then one day they realized their users were leaving in mass numbers for a few newer competitors that were cheaper, more reliable and more attentive to their needs. Now the first company has rebranded itself in an effort to improve it’s reputation with the public and win back that business.

The important thing here is not what’s going on but why. Companies here are often ‘reactive’ instead of proactive, waiting until they’ve chased people away before they attempt to improve. All too common among the entrepreneurs here is the eagerness to chase a few quick dollars instead of looking at the ‘bigger picture’. I’ll give you a simple example…

I don’t have a car so I have two main special hire taxi guys on call that I use for all my trips around town. Taxi 1 and Taxi 2.

Taxi 1 is young and ambitious. I can tell he wants to make money. He’s punctual, he’s a safe driver and somewhere along the line and he gets me to where I need to go quickly. His english is great, his car is reliable and he knows the city well.

Taxi 2 is a little bit older buts also ambitious. His stage is farther away so I know it will always take him longer than Taxi 1 who’s staged just down the street from my house. He’s also relatively punctual and a safe driver. He’s not the best with his english, which often leads to misunderstandings, but he’s polite and offers great service.

Now, initially I used Taxi 1 a lot for the apparent advantages he had over the other guy but I began to notice that his pricing was irregular. Sometimes the same trip would be 10,000UGX to get to a place but 15,000UGX to get back. He’d quote me high on trips that I took everyday with other drivers, so I knew the going rate was cheaper. Even after weeks of hiring him to drive us, he still pulls the same tricks to get more money. If I protest he’ll come down a bit but he still makes the first offer high, something usually reserved for the taxis you haven’t built a relationship with. He seems to forget the fact that he’s not the only game in town.

Taxi 2 has his disadvantages but he never over quotes me anything. In fact, he seems to price by an internal meter or rule book. He simply goes for what’s fair instead of what will get him the most money in the moment. There’s no foreigner-tax, it’s just good business.

Taxi 1 may not know it but he’s doing himself a huge disservice. If he didn’t go ‘high’ with is prices, I wouldn’t feel like he’s ripping me of and he’d get much more of my business. Instead, he’s reacting for the moment because he knows I probably have more cash than his normal clientele. But I can’t trust him. Instead of doing the smart thing in order to keep my business, he tends to just go for the quick pay off. It’s short sighted.

Needless to say Taxi 2 has won all of my business as a result and Taxi 1 will never get a call from me again. It’s simple economics. I will spend my money where I feel I’m being respected and I’ll look out for a business that looks out for me. I think that understanding generally transcends cultural barriers.

That story illustrates the mentality that undermines ‘Free’ as a business model in Africa. Delayed gratification seems to be a foreign concept to Taxi 1. Taxi 2, however, understands that although he could continue to fend for himself by attempting to get the most out of every single passenger, it might also be in his best interest to keep the clients who do pay well coming back for more. Taxi 1 wants as many customers as he can possibly get to pay as much as he can possibly get out of them. Taxi 2 charges everyone the same, does a good job and people like me latch on. Now he’s building up loyal clients. In the long run he’s probably making more than the other guy, too.

At the same time, to be fair to Taxi 1, bidding is generally part of the culture here. And it’s that part of the culture that can work against simple business practices. When given the choice between money now or more money later, smany people here are blinded by the short term. But it’s important for me to point out that this comes out of the necessity to meet basic needs. To eliminate this mentality, the overall economic conditions of these markets must improve.

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Attack on Father HoLung

The mackdiva, a frequent reader of the bog, made a comment on the reaction that this Father HoLung video garnered on a Catholic website.

The fellow who posted the video said "This video depicts a Caribbean-style version of the Our Father favoured by Catholic trendies. It is not a spoof. Honestly.

Hat tip to a fantastic American blog, Christus Vincit, devoted to exposing bad liturgical music. It's run by three Catholic parish musicians who don't mince their words.

Referring to the Our Father, chief blogger Brian Michael Page writes that the composer is apparently a very holy priest. "OK, so why is he writing such garbage as this?" he asks.

Good question. I don't mind if consenting adults sing this stuff privately, gathered around the Tablet Table, but there's no place for it in church."

I was amazed, until I read the comments... and then I was appalled.

When you see the video, read the comments below it.

Click to see the link tothe post, the video and the comments here.

Then come back and tell us what you thought.

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Jamaican Sprinters

If it's one thing that we Jamaicans can be counted on, it's to enjoy the fact that we have the world's greatest sprint factory.

What many don't know is that a major factor in our success is the intense rivalry that exists among our high schools, that starts at age 11 and continues for a lifetime.

I remember vividly sitting at a lunch-table in my college dorm in the U.S. as a teenager, listening to my American friends from around the continent talk about how much they hated high school. I was amazed, for as far as I was concerned, my days at Wolmers Boys School in Kingston from 1977-1984 were the bet part of my life up to that point.

That I followed my father and grandmother in attending the school was incidental. (Grandma attended Wolmers Girls School next door.)

What was more important was the sense of pride I felt at belonging to a fine institution with a 250+ year history. Wearing a uniform meant that I represented the school on any given school day, to the Jamaican public. Wearing the badges the showed the student offices I held only upped the obligation to be the best example I could be to those who had the "misfortune" to attend other schools.

Back then, as today, that pride translates into a rivalry with all other high schools that produces world-leading performance in track and field, and the occasional angry confrontation, and even fights.

A Jamaican child who reaches the age of 11 is quite conscious of which high school they would like to attend, and the privilege of getting their choice. At that age, all students in the public school system sit an exam to enter the high school system. They make a list of their preferences in rank order and the result is quite simple -- the best performers receive their first choices while the worst performers receive no further education.

The stakes are therefore quite high. The results are made public, and the pride that one feels in getting into a good school begins the lifelong association with the high school they attend.

This all helps to make our high school athletes run faster.

The rivalry comes to a head when each high school in Jamaica competes in Boys and Girls Championships, a four day track and field-only event held in Kingston each year. The competition showcases the best of the island's talent, filling a stadium of 30,000 with people of all ages, most of whom are sporting the colours of the high school of their choice.

For a handful, a top performance at "Champs" will lead to scholarships and opportunities. For others it will mean popularity, local success, and the admiration of thousands. For all, it's a chance to do their best in a competition that is unlike anything else of its kind in the world.

Asafa, Usain, Veronica and the rest are all products of this system, which produces far more quality athletes per capita than any other comparable program in the world.

As we take the track this week, I expect people to be wondering how a small country with very limited resources can be so successful in producing quality athletes. It's not in the yam, as some would suggest, it's in our high schools.

Update: Usain, Asafa and Michael Frater just qualified for the semi-finals.

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Controversy in the Jamaican Team at the Olympic Village

A 200 kilo shipment of suspected Performance Enhancing Drugs (PED) addressed to the Jamaican track team at the Olympic Village was siezed by authorites at the Wong Hung Lo docks in Beijing early this morning. Coming on the heels of the disclosure that a member of the JA team has tested positive for a banned substance, the news has rocked the JAAA and cast an even greater pall over the team's preparations for the Games.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior customs inspector told Reuters that suspicions were aroused by the bulky and lumpy shipment which was wrapped in rough, dirty burlap. Stenciled in bold letters on the bag was the address of the Jamaican team at the Village and also the words:

DELIVER TO ASAFA, USAIN, VERONICA and KERRON ... DEM CYAAN RUN GOOD WITHOUT IT.

Upon opening the package, dozens and dozens of a dirty, tubular product was discovered and immediately sent to the WADA lab in Beijing for testing. Chinese customs are certain that they have intercepted a shipment of pure, unprocessed steroids and have put the IAAF and the JAAA on notice that severe action will be taken as soon as WADA confirms their findings.

The picture below is of one of the mystery 'products' from the shipment and was taken at the lab just before testing commenced. We will update this story as soon as there is more to report as indeed the entire world of track and field anxiously awaits WADA's report.




Jamaican Yellow Yam

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Jamaican Greetings

In spite of the aggressiveness and sometimes harsh nature of life in Jamaica, one of the sweet contradictions lies in how Jamaicans greet each other.



"Blessed" has become a popular greeting that I have never heard in another country. I suspect that its origin lies in the Rastafarian faith.



"Respect" is another greeting that has been around for longer, and is just a typically Jamaican way of sending a clear affirmative signal to another person.



"Yes" or "Yes, Yes" accompanied with a nod of the head are also popular ways of merely affirming that you are recognizing another. Older similar forms include "Easy" and "Cool nuh."



These are warm greetings of well-wishes passed between strangers who are sending positive signals or vibes between each other. They are uttered over the unspoken and unquestioned assumption that we are in each other's lives forever.

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Being Connected

Mark Twain said: "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many people need it solely on those accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views cannot be acquired by vegetating in one corner of the earth all one's lifetime."

As I type this words on a plane back to Kingston, I am struck by how true these words are, and how easily they are forgotten.

This is my first trip outside of the Caribbean in a year, which makes this the longest span of time I have spent outside North America since I was 18 years old.

It wasn't planned -- elections, a hurricane and generally poor business conditions in Jamaica have conspired to keep me grounded for some time.

So, coming back to America for the past three days has been an eye-opener.

What struck me most of all coming off the plane into Miami airport was how a reminder of why the thought of living permanently in the U.S. only once crossed my mind in 20 years of living there.

As I walked from Terminal E up to the post office and Bank of America branch on the 4th floor, I was amazed at the people I walked past, and how dis-connected they were from each other. It brought back vivid memories of my first few months in America, as a college student, when I quickly learned that this was not what I was used to.

The difference in culture is difficult to explain in words, but there is something that happens when a few million people live on an island separated from other countries by an expensive airfare. There is an unspoken and very powerful assumption that exists between people in Jamaica -- that we belong in each other's lives.
Also, we take this belonging very seriously.

My wife complains that she cannot go anywhere in Jamaica wearing anything that she want without being noticed, recognized and silently and deliberately scrutinized. Also, it is now impossible for her to run for an hour without seeing people she knows, or who know her. Strangers have commented on the fact that they haven't seen her in a while... while she cannot recall ever seeing their faces.

I have mentioned the silent eye-contact and survey that takes place at a Jamaican traffic-light... the quick search for who I know, who else is here, how everyone is doing.

Part of it all has to do with sheer size. A place like Miami airport has thousands of people passing through it each day. It's simply impossible to try to make eye-contact with more than a few people in the typical day with so many people coming and going.

I remember learning not to try to hold on to people after moving to the U.S. After all, the chances were good that I would never see them again.

In Jamaica, the opposite is true. Even a casual encounter has the very opposite assumption. Behind every meeting there is a very different assumption: "This is just the beginning."

And that's part of why living in America felt so "foreign" to me.

I never ever intended to stay more than 5 years, and left Jamaica knowing I'd be back. Apart from one very short period of time, I never contemplated staying and living in that country permanently.

I always knew there was someplace better, but not in terms that people typically measure, such as the absence of crime, or the presence of material wealth.

Instead, I knew there was somewhere I belonged, and around me all I could see were people who didn't belong to each other, and that this was a fundamental way of being.

In the news this past week there was the story of a Jamaican woman living in New York died after lying on the floor unattended for over an hour. People walked by, and in true New York style, they kept to themselves, allowing her to pass away quietly in the corner of a waiting room.

Those of us who have lived in the U.S. can understand how this could happen, and even empathize with the need to follow on of the early lessons that everyone learns upon migrating... to "stay out of trouble."

There is a reasons we Jamaicans call America "farrin" and it's not in terms of day-to-day danger from criminals. It's just that our background tells us that there is a very different way to relate
to people that is so rich, warm and expansive that tourists and expats who fall in love with Jamaica talk about it all the time... "the people...!"

I simply found that even after 20 years I could not make the necessary transition to "become Yankee" the way others from Jamaica were able to. I kept my accent, with some adjustments in order to be understood, kept on thinking about moving home and kept telling anyone who would listen that I was moving home to live
at some point.

Jamaica remained the focus of my attention, and I just could not lose myself in American culture the way a good immigrant should.

The other day a Jamaican living in the U.S. asked me why I came home after 20 years away, and all I could tell them was "I never really left."


-------------------------------
P.S. On a side note, some say that our high crime rate comes from our tendency to be connected to each other, and from our propensity to take everything personally and seriously... interesting.

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Provocative Take on Organized Religion

The chances are good that when someone moves back to Jamaica, they are coming to a country that is extremely religious, and also extremely violent.

It's no accident that most of the religions practiced claim to be correct, denounce others that they see as incorrect and speak in a way that induces fear in the minds of those who aren't "members" in order to get them to convert.

Unfortunately, this is not only a matter of atheists vs. "the rest of us believers", but it also includes:

• my religion vs. the other religions
• my denomination vs. the others
• my church vs. the others in the denomination
• the time of my service vs. the others in my church
  
• people in the church who share my beliefs vs. the rest
  

I know people who will argue that baptism is not enough, but that it must also involve the right amount of water, at the right age, with the right words and in the right direction (backwards, forwards, etc.)

In other words, a returnee to Jamaica is likely to notice that here in Jamaica there are a lot of people being right about a lot of things, and spending a lot of energy making other people wrong. (Of course, this extends to politics as well.)

Against that back-drop, I read a post by Steve Pavlina this morning that is not for the faint of heart, or anyone who is not willing to think or is prone to react based on emotions only. His post is entitled "Ten Reasons You Should Never Have a Religion" and it reminded me of the dilemma I had when I left Jamaica at 18 only to discover that the kind of Baptist I happened to be, did not exist in the U.S.

In other words, a "Jamaica Baptist Union" kind of Baptist was not white, black, mixed, Southern or anything like the churches I found in the U.S. It was what it was, and its beliefs were just... local and specific to one sect in Jamaica.

I liked to think at one point that all Jamaican Christians were the same, only to realize that there were many who had already condemned me to hell because I wasn't baptized the right way, for example. I was amazed when a Christian friend of mine advised me of my peril, as a way to get me to come over to his church.

As I said, his post is provocative as it's MUCH easier to see where other religious people are making the errors in judgment he describes.

MUCH easier.

We however, are lucky, because we happen to be right, and we know that we are right. Right?

Being right and making others wrong does have a certain violent quality to it, even when its done "for their benefit."

Here is the link to the post. http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2008/05/10-reasons-you-should-never-have-a-religion/

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The Two Fastest Men in the World, and Fastest Woman

Jamaica awakens this morning to the news that Usain Bolt has broken the world record for the 100 m dash.

That is, he has broken Asafa Powell of Jamaica's world record with one of his own. On the same night, Veronica Campbell ran the fastest 100m by a woman this year. (Click here for a report of both races in the New York Times.)

How is Jamaica able to produce such amazing results from an island of a mere 2.6 millions people?

It's simple... the annual high school rivalry in athletics, that we Jamaicans call "Champs" is simply the best event of its kind in the world, and the results are evidence of the passion that we bring to the sport and also our alma
maters.

Here is a report I wrote from 2006 Champs, trying to explain this unique phenomena.

I vividly recall sitting around the dinner table with my fellow students at Cornell, talking about high school, and hearing them share how much they hated it. Here in Jamaica, that is a feeling that is rarely expressed, as our predominant feeling with respect to our own high school is one of instant pride that lasts a lifetime. Is is expected, and accepted, and understood to be true.

Representing one's high school in a sporting event like Champs, and winning awards for the school at seen as some of the highest accomplishments, whether it be on the debating team, the football field or on School's Challenge.

It matters not -- high accomplishment stems from school pride, which in turn translates to national pride.

All this when our crime rate (and food prices) have risen alarmingly. How to convert the success in one area of national life to less murders in the other is a question that we might be asking as we celebrate.

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License to Hate

I woke up with his words ringing in my ears.... "Not in My Cabinet."

My Prime Minister has just communicated to the world that he is a bigot, and that he hates gay people, and that he is prepared to deny someone who is gay a position they deserve simply because they are homosexual.

Let's see what this means. A gay man, a lesbian woman, a bisexual person.... they all would find the door closed regardless of their accomplishments.

Presumably, someone in his current Cabinet who is in the closet, and decides to tell the truth would be fired on the spot. I imagine that if one of his children were to do the same they'd suffer some severe fate. Anyone in government who is gay had better keep it under wraps as well, because their management has now received a reason to get rid of them, and an open license to hate.

With his words and example he is making it clear. It is fine in Jamaica for a manager to use sexual orientation as a reason to exclude people from jobs, careers and professions. Once they are found out, they can be fired.

It's obvious by the tone of his words that they are the kind of people who need to be excluded from the best that Jamaica has to offer, and if there is no reversal of his public attitude, they are bound to continue to suffer in our country.

The consequences are already being felt around the world, as Jamaica tells the world the lengths we are willing to go, in order to exclude gay people. Of course, the world just happens to be moving in the opposite direction, with full force. We, however, have the willingness and the fortitude to stick it out alone, apparently, and to be the only country in the world, if we have to be, that openly discriminates against gays at the highest level.

All this while wanting to remain a top tourist destination.

It looks to me as if we'll have to feel the tangible consequences of our collective bigotry before anything changes, because now, things are likely to become much,much worse for us.

I wonder if the Prime Minister knows how much he has damaged our country?

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Preparing for the World's Backlash

Bruce Golding's interview, aired yesterday on BBC, brought out some of the best and worst of Jamaica, in the eyes of the world.

One the one hand we are a feisty bunch of people, who are unwilling to be be dictated to, or humbled by outside forces.

On the other hand we have an astronomic murder rate and there exists a widespread, open hatred of homosexuals that goes well past mere homophobia.

Last night Golding, who I admire in many ways, candidly responded that he would not have a gay person in his cabinet. His distaste and contempt seemed palpable to me.

He implied that the reason for this decision was to enable them to execute their duties "without favour, fear or intimidation."

I imagined Jamaicans looking on with pride, as the comments on the YouTube video of the interview reflected: http://youtube.com/watch?v=9cQx-zmHgg8

I imagined most of the world looking on in horror.

At that moment I felt what it would like to be on the receiving end of the world's lobbying efforts, with my country, Jamaica, arguing that it did not need to heed the calls from the rest of the world for human rights for an oppressed minority. We join China, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Myanmar/Burma and others in arguing that we should be left alone to determine our own future free of outside interference from the test of the world.

Our complaint should not be new as we heard it loud and clear when white South Africa made the same plea in defense of their Apartheid system

We have a bigger problem, however. Tourism makes up a significant part of our earnings (the second largest source of foreign exchange.)

Golding's words certainly won't help us attract more visitors.

It will probably attract more of the kind of attention these repressive regimes shared, as we implement our own Apartheid.

We continue to try to have our cake and eat it too. This point seems to have been lost on Golding yesterday, as he made what most around the world would agree were unusually divisive and bigoted comments. The undertone of his words was clear -- gays are just not.... enough to be in his cabinet. They are too.... to serve in that capacity.

He sounded like any Jamaican speaking here in Kingston, just a lot milder in his comments than the average man in the street. In Jamaica, it's said that he couldn't say his real feelings, because the world couldn't handle them.

However, in the rest of the world, I imagine, his spoken words on the BBC HardTalk programme are enough to provoke outrage, boycotts, demonstrations and calls for Jamaica to join the company of civilized nations.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=9cQx-zmHgg8 -- Click here

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Inventing Time Management

Moving Back to Jamaica has spurred an interesting boost in creativity on my part, as I was explaining to a friend of mine on the phone yesterday.

One of the products of moving home is a new time management approach that I invented when I quickly learned that the methods I adopted in the U.S. were woefully insufficient here.

It forced me to go back to basics, and design my own system.

Now, I am teaching others to do the same, and I think I am offering the only assistance in the world in developing one's own system (rather than trying to sell a pre-packaged set of solutions.) Or, at least, I should say that no-one else I have found is offering this kind of help... to my amazement.

The good news is that in April, participants in a couple of my workshops will leave with their own time management systems... fully designed by them. The programme is called "NewHabits-NewGoals."

In Kingston, April 15-16 -- http://fwconsulting.com/newhabits

In Port of Spain, April 29-20 -- http://fwconsulting.com/newhabitstt

On either page, there is a link to a free e-book, and also the entire body of source materials.

On Facebook, there is a "Time Management for Caribbean Professionals' group, and I welcome anyone with an interest in improving our productivity in the region.

It's an exciting time!

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Violence as a Sound "Teaching Tool"

I have written before about the different points of view on corporal punishment here in Jamaica, and shared some of my points of view on the subject.

Recently the Minister of Education, who seems to be one of the very bright sparks in the 6 month old administration, declared that flogging at home and school were contributing to the high levels of violence that we Jamaicans are experiencing.

He said: "do you know what that passes to the students? That the only way to resolve a conflict is through violence, and what is being played out in the society is reinforced everyday by how we as a society imparts disciplinary instruction to our young people."

This flies in the face of much of the conventional wisdom which argues that "flogging was good for me, so it must be good for everyone." Unfortunately, those who state this nonsense never deal with the idea that our high murder rate might have something to do with the fact that we teach and demonstrate the "efficacy" of
violence as a teaching tool.

Every child that is beaten is taught: "Do this with your children (or spouse, or neighbours, or elderly, or poor, or otherwise defenseless.)" "It works!"

Of course, it doesn't.

"See this link to the article"

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Enough to Move Back For

"Research" has shown that these peppery items are the number #1 reason that Jamaicans living abroad return home to reside in Jamaica.

Photo taken by my 6 year old nephew.

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Upgraded Pepper Shrimp

Driving through Middle Quarters the other day led us to a small, roadside shack that sells cooked food.

As Jamaicans know, Middle Quarters is pepper shrimp country. I used to think that the shrimp I would buy in the bag on the road to Negril from the ladies of that town were one of Jamaica's unique treats that epitomised the best of our country's roadside eating.

I believed this was true until I stopped by this small food-shop with 2 tables and way too many flies, and had fresh-cooked pepper shrimp and Janga (shrimp) soup for the first time.

I am here to tell every Yardie and tourist that there are two kinds of pepper shrimp -- one that is cooked and placed in the bag, and the other that comes straight from the pot. And, the one that comes straight from the pot will bring tears to your eyes and a smile to your face.

I had it for the first time a few weeks ago, and experienced an explosion of flavour that was simply amazing. Apparently, something happens to pepper shrimps when they cool down, and something is undoubtedly lost in the process. The difference is startling.

The place I visited is on the right, just a little east of the center of town. It's opposite a smalls store, and it has a name I don't remember, that can barely be seen while driving by.

Like many things in Jamaica, it is a quiet secret, andyou may have to discover it for yourself if you love pepper shrimp.

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Staring and Staring

My wife remarked, upon first moving to Jamaica, how much we like to stare at people.
She couldn't understand it, and neither could I, because I didn't experience this phenomena at all,and she did. Then she mentioned that it happens especially at stop lights... and we figured it out.
We Jamaicans aren't really staring -- we are looking at each other to do a few important things, I tried to explain...
1) We are looking to see if we know you. Or, to put it more precisely, we are trying to remember where we know you from, because we are sure that we know you.
2) If we don't know you, we want to think that we know your mother, brother, father, sister, and we know that you look just like them.
3) By the time we figure out that we don't know you and that you don't remind us of anyone, and that you look fairly average, you have caught us "staring."
I vividly remember taking my first subway trip in New York City and being amazed at how hard people had to work in order to avoid eye contact. In the larger cities, at least, this is everyday behaviour.
Here in the Caribbean, "nutten no go so!" This undoubtedly takes some getting used to.

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Jamaican Greetings

In spite of the aggressiveness and sometimes harsh nature of life in Jamaica, one of the sweet contradictions lies in how Jamaicans greet each other.

Of course there are the regular greetings of "Hello," "How are you," and "Good morning."

Then there are the others...

"Blessed" has become a popular greeting that I have never heard in another country. I suspect that its origin lies in the Rastafarian faith.

"Respect" is another greeting that has been around for longer, and is just a typically Jamaican way of sending a clear affirmative signal to another person.

"Yes" or "Yes, Yes" accompanied with a nod of the head are also popular ways of merely affirming that you are recognizing another. Older similar forms include "Easy" and "Cool nuh."

These are warm greetings of well-wishes passed between strangers who are sending positive signals or vibes between each other. They are uttered over the unspoken and unquestioned assumption that we are in each other's lives forever.

Of course, this vastly different than the plastic-smiling "Hello" that I remember from the U.S.

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A Jamaican in My Foxhole

I don't know about you, but if a war broke out I'd want my fellow Jamaican in the foxhole beside me.

I wouldn't want a Trini, Bajan, Guyanese or anyone else from the region.

I'd want a Jamaican.

The reasons might be obvious to all, and need not be stated... but weyadres know how to "chuck badness" and a time of war is a pretty good time to "show dem bwoy who really run tings."

Perhaps the thing we are lacking here at home is for some foolish country to think that it could try to invade us, or bully us or use any kind of violence against us. I have a feeling that it would coalesce our patriotism, our aggression and our street smarts in a way that would change us forever.

After all, it's been awhile since we got rid of the Brits...

Unfortunately, without a real war to bring us together, we are left with the destructive violence of gang warfare, political fighting, religious cass-cass and good old man-woman conflicts. These are the social equivalents of shooting ourselves in the foot -- over and over again.

In other words, we are a people itching for a fight, but .... we can't find a good one to fight.

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Learning to Consume

It strikes me that Jamaicans who migrate looking for a better life, do indeed get one, relative to what they left behind.

However, they also get something else -- a new and abiding hunger for more.

Returning to the U.S. after being away for a couple of years has opened my eyes to how much the message is transmitted in North America in the form of unrelenting advertising: "you don't have enough, you need more, and here is the more you need."

During my last trip to the U.S. I had the ongoing experience of being "sold to," using a combination of fear, greed and other base emotions.  The themes were everywhere I looked, from television to newspapers to billboards.

I never noticed the message when I lived there, but now that I live abroad and outside of that world, it stands out.

What is sad is that people in the U.S. seem to have developed a tough exterior in which they distrust all advertising and sales pitches with a sense of cynical "realism."  Each person sees the other as an economic target to sell something to, using whatever means necessary.

Here in Jamaica, things are just very different, and I have yet to receive my first Jamaican-based telemarketing call, piece of junk mail or email spam.

When a Jamaican moves abroad, they are subject to that same, new frame of mind.  They learn the cynicism that comes with repeatedly being "sold."  They come to want the best DVD player, more DVD's, the very latest films and the flat screen TV to watch it all on.  When they left Jamaica they were content being one of the few people they knew with any kind of DVD player.

The new consumer thinking gets into their heads, and they find that if they wait for the right sale, they can get what they want.  However, they also get something else they didn't plan on getting -- US Consumer tastes, a desire for more and a deep cynicism about marketing.

Coming back to Jamaica has meant a freedom from that hard edge and it's a solid benefit.  Hopefully, that's one thing that won't change.

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