In Defense of INDECOM

Today we live in extraordinary times when unprecedented events keep happening that undermine the stability of our world. Scamming, youth apathy, bleaching, waves of crime and violence. This is a time and place where those in power and control seem unable to deal with the issues of the day, and no-one has any vision of a different or a better kind of future. It seems paradoxical and contrary to me that the government is unable to negotiate payment of the Police yet now, for the sake of political grandstanding, for public relations relief our Prime Minister has proposed to pay the legal expenses of Police who are under the scrutiny of INDECOM, undermining the same institution his party predecessors implemented. Simply for political expedience, human rights gains are reversed.

I can see no logic to this as 1. this position doesn't fix the economic/wage, social and psychological problems within the police system. 2.This position takes an adversarial stance to INDECOM. Positing that the agency goes "too far" with regard to police oversight. In practical terms, INDECOM is one of the few human rights steps we have taken to have a major effect in the country on the ground. 3. INDECOM is not an impediment to crime fighting. To truly fight crime we need one an accountable an effective police system. One which we know is free of corruption, one which is paid properly, trained properly. We need a system of comprehensive forensics and follow up of an investigation. The fight against crime requires a more efficient legal system and justice system, the removing of a corrupt judiciary, not more laws, but the execution and carrying out of the laws we do have with greater speed and efficiency. The work of fighting "crime" which is an intangible and nebulous thing or concept, takes substantive efforts in the spheres of education, culture and economics, not public relations fluff, not political grandstanding. Fixing the country is real work.

The police is a very old institution in this country, with a history of policing over a slave class and second class citizens. Let us not forget one of the early display of police brutality and state force in the Coral Gardens Incident of 1963. Let us not pretend that the history of the police was to use force against newly freed slaves to protect the interest of the former plantocracy and that legacy of force has morphed into a present day where the police have become apathetic with regard to doing the actual work of investigation and follow up, but would rather just shoot first and ask question later if ask any at all. I know many good police officers, some who employ community policing and social approaches, but believe me, they are far outnumbered by the epidemic of brutality and corruption that has infected the police. It is common knowledge that power corrupts, so we must now ask "who watches the watchman" another common expression. Oversight of the police is necessary and a must.

Those who decry INDECOM have forgotten the social circumstance that led to the birth of INDECOM, years of Braeton 7, Kraal Killings, Kentucky Kid, an age when there was less technology at our disposal and even less precision in law enforcement. A time when the police force was simply a BLUNT instrument when innocent lives could easily be swept up in the murder of flat-footed alleged criminals being executed on sight. A time when the good suffered at the hands of the police with the bad, when respect for the citizenry outside of "Risto-dom" was nil, when police were contemptuous of domiciles with zinc fences or board houses. When civil liberties were trampled with impunity and extrajudicial killings were protested on the news nightly. What is required today in Jamaica is a more clinical Jamaica Constabulary.

Are we to pretend all the international reports about our police and policing don't exist? Are we to pretend all the national enquiries and commissions pointing to inadequacies in our policing body and methodology don't exist? Are we to forget the brutal display of force in the May 2010 Tivoli incursion? There are not that many agencies the public can use to challenge the state administratively or constitutionally, shall we erode one of the few? Then what next, dismantle the office of The Public Defender? We cannot let fear of crime cause us, to cowardly erode our own social gains and civil liberties, we should instead rise to the challenge of doing the hard work of rooting out corruption, implementing better-policing tools and methods, fixing the judiciary, fixing the economy! Let us not follow the Prime Minister in taking this cowardly path out of fear and for political expediency. Please let us not!

Western Jamaica's Burgeoning Conscious Community

When one thinks of poetry, dub, culture, history and the arts in Jamaica, most people think Kingston, Edna Manley, Red Bones Cafe, The Ranny Williams Centre, Reggae revival, Jah 9, Protege, Jesse Royal, Kabaka Pyramid, Chronixx, Damian Marley...

Stretch your brain now and see if you can think of any Western Jamaican musicians in that vain... I am willing to bet you couldn't think of any or know any. You do know they exist though right? It is time you know artistes like... new western Jamaican artistes Mentor, Lij Tafari, Lusion, Jovexx, Antwain, Marley Fire, I-Mara, Raydaar, Teacher Dee, Naphtali/Omar, Okonko, Kempo and The Young Jamaica Ensemble these are names represent a western Jamaican authentic arts and reggae musical experiences to be had, if one is going to say they are an adept aficionado of western Jamaican music. Other names like Kolumbo, Mycus Chip and Fury echo of the quasi-street conscious ethos of Jah Vinci's calibre, with shades of both dancehall and reggae in their game. This generation of artists is worthy successors to Montegonian reggae and culture legends like White Mice, Jah Cure and Queen Ifrica. With regard to dub poetry, names bubbling in the local market are Blabber, Kofi Kulcha, Skripcha, Marley Fire, Venise Samuels amongst many others.

This crop of artistes offers cultural enrichment and entertainment that isn't available elsewhere in Jamaica. The hub and foundation of much of the stunningly beautiful music being made in Montego Bay, with amazing insights and great beats, is created in The People's Arcade and Coomb's Lane. Upcoming studios like Skull Yard and foundation studios like Victory One, Vidal and Half-a-Dread are helping to propel both new artists while keeping grounded with foundation artistes. Out here, being produced in the west are songs to dance and vibe to as well as deep cerebral lyrics to creep inside of and crawl through your psyche. This music takes you outside your conventional conceptualization of Jamaican music as most popular Jamaican music is Kingston based, biased and centred. These western Jamaicans give you a different perspective. A true reggae aficionado can no longer ignore the energies being emitted from Western Jamaica.

Although the mainstream often associates contemporary Jamaican music with the harder dancehall of artists like Beenie Man and Vybz Kartel, the Jamaican listenership has an under-reported love for melodic pop and smooth flows. Downtown dances play Celine Dion, Kenny Rogers remains popular and local supergroup L.U.S.T. – Lukie D, Trilla U, Singing Melody and Tony Curtis – scored a hit with a cover of Air Supply's "Just As I Am." Today the airwaves being taken over by local music station Fyah 105, has re-proven that Jamaican ears hunger and are eager to hear global rhythms, and join the procession of new music and musical global consciousness that is flowering all over the planet.

I say to you now, go research these names, these artists... listen to my sampling of videos... witness the blossoming of Mobay Music... the western consciousness revival!

A City Under Seige

“Writers imagine that they cull stories from the world. I'm beginning to believe that vanity makes them think so. That it's actually the other way around. Stories cull writers from the world. Stories reveal themselves to us. The public narrative, the private narrative - they colonize us. They commission us. They insist on being told. Fiction and nonfiction are only different techniques of story telling. For reasons that I don't fully understand, fiction dances out of me, and nonfiction is wrenched out by the aching, broken world I wake up to every morning.” ~ Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things 

 

 As we ride through the intense heat and crime wave washing the city in tsunami like fashion, the schemes, shanty towns, communities are erupting as the victims of poverty, global financial warfare, IMF debt, personal debt, urban and spiritual decay begin to break out violently and virulently. Sometimes I wonder if the public knows what is happening... do you know what is happening in Paradise, in Norwood, in Flankers, in Meggy Top, in Salt Spring, in Granville, in Cambridge, in Orange and Sign? Peoples lives are shattered, men are in splinters, women in despair, children losing fathers and mothers to guns and disease. Children living with the faint anguish of hunger in their little eyes. Then there are the unknown valiant heroes, the ones who with out pay, not given the respect due, the ones running youth clubs and residents associations, not in the name of politics, but simple activism, to simply take up the challenge of building a better community, trying to safeguard the future, some conservative, some vanguard, but all unknown heroes who are not worshipped on facebook or instagram, the ones the media and the press miss. And rising fast out of the shadows, brooding in these dire economic times, the evil, the misguided, the perverted... spreading its tentacles out into communities, spreading warfare, spreading rumors, spreading mental diseases, ruining young children. 

 

Do you get the picture? Or is your mental image of Montego Bay still pretty girls at parties on twitter, youtube and instagram, is it Burger King and the HipStrip, is it romanticized garrisons through Samsung lenses and photo effects? Is it escapist worlds that Fairview and Ironshore and Coral Gardens can be? Is it Casinos and taboos? Is it playing politics on FB? Did you miss the bodies at KFC, at Whitter Village, in Paradise, in Cassava Walk, in Gulf, In Waltham, in Salt Spring, Sam Sharpe Square, Taboo parking lot, Pier One... or was your time spent on 50 Shades of Grey, Avengers 2, rum bottles, chasing skirts, stroking your own ego, taking selfies, posing, posturing... not really doing anything? I know I do the FB and IG thing but life is more than that. I know I seem filled with righteous indignation or some righteous anger, but it isn't that, I am writing from a place of utter despair and brokeness hoping someone hears, that more of you step out into the battle field and fight to change our future, that more of you commit your brains to good ideas and spend your computational and processing power in productive and positive fashion. Surely I am not prososing that we all become good little socialist working for the common good that everything will turn out to be sunshine and roses... but he have to commit ourselves to the hard challenges that confront us now. 

 

The last two years was a year like no other for me in Paradise... I have watched Chik V decimate the community, as well as cancer, AIDS, gunshot, heart attack, strokes, diabetes and the list goes on. The passing of community members and staple in what seems to be an unending cycle of trauma. The trend continued into the new year as people whittle away... as violence continues to visit the community, as people come to realize Marcus Mosiah's prophecy, not knowing themselves till their back is against the wall, as they can't no food to eat and no money to spend. Now to have Zik V at our doorsteps! 

 

Somethings like Youth Club and Residents Association prove to be a glimmer of hope, but the wider circumstance of Paradise, it's surrounding Norwood and even Montego Bay. The economy isn't exactly stagnant, the ratings from international agencies show that, so now how does government and the private sector pass the savings of lower light bills and oil prices to the consumers, as children are missing school more often, children are becoming parentless, the population is thinning, not through conscious effort but through owing to the economics of living, the simple costs of living. More people are applying for ways to leave the country. As the maddening crowd hurries on into elections and carries a season of irrational debates to communities, whilst the unsung heroes, suffer and wilt away. 

 

As we see what seems to be an epic crime wave washing the city and western Jamaica with reports of shootings in the city almost daily. One can say without a doubt that this epidemic of cancerous crime is out of hand, radical approaches to joblessness and unemployment have to be put in place, the economy addressed, the culture fixed, religious institutions doing more social outreach, more entrepreneurs and solopreneurs, then better crime fighting techniques, 21st investigations and forensics!

As a people we need a serious and comprehensive and dynamic coming together, pooling of resources and ideas to secure the future of the community. Homework programs, safety nets and cheap solutions for children who are skipping schools, more culture and cultural events, we need to bolster the effort in youth club, in residents association in the senior citizens associations. Support entrepreneurs, buy local more, clean up our hearts and seek a more spiritual life... not religious but spiritual... inject more love into the youth into our families... we need now an in-gathering... build back, rebuild. We need a new and revitalized "Save-the-dollar" Initiative, one that is robust and encompasses, social media and online crowdfunding, pooling members of the diaspora, reaching out to grassroot, involving conventional banks and the private sector being patriotic... at least a few banks. This bolstered with novel ideas like local community or parish currencies like the "Bristol Pound" and Bitcoin. 

 

Let us meditate on the successes of the Sunshine Girls, Reggae Boys, Merlene Ottey, Herb Mckenley, Shelly Ann Fraser, Cuthbert, Campbel-Brown, Asafa, Bolt, Swimmers, Special Olympians, Onandi Lowe, Walter Boyd, Tessanne, Marcus Garvey, Bob Marley, Harry Bellafonte, Andre Mcdonald, Claude McKay, Shaggy, Sean Paul, Dustin Brown... So much so much... IF ONLY WE HAD POLITICIANS that performed to the same standard and calibre that ordinary citizens step out to achieve... JAH we woulda be capital of planet Earth! 

 

Yes the politicians are inept, yes some police corrupt, yes lots of exploitive businesses are there and yes some business leaders join Chamber of Commerce to advance their personal missions and as personal platform. Yes this country and this city is a mess, a tangled web. Yes yes yes, but wasn't our god Anansi? Were'nt we the first storytellers... so it is time we imagined a new tale... one where we survive, where we are the victor and there is no armageddon. Isn't it time we committed truly in our hearts to be agitators for change, to begin to curb the potential disaster of the things we do and things we create. 

 

I don't know about you, but I cannot close my eyes to these things... I will not! There are couples living in hovels, Rasta Elders and shut ins living in leaking houses and rotting board, children hungry and every fast food place throws away unsold food at 10-11pm. This city has broken heart, it is filled with a history of injustice, sons and daughters of slaves that ran up and down on the Barnet Estate, Jarrett Estate, scions of insurrectionists that participated in the Christmas Rebellion and the others, generations of uncompensated families, a cycle and trend that if you don't know history, you wont see it carry on into today. I don't want to ever become numb to these things, comfortable with human suffering and injustice, but some I worry that it may make me bitter and angry. I wonder if this is just the vestiges of idealism in me and the dying flickers of youth. But until the flicker of every last revolutionary fervor dies in me and no ember or spark is left, let it be known from Maroon Town, to the Hill on which Sam Sharpe teacher's College stands to the Clock, up Jarrett Street and on to Sam Sharpe Square...

The People's Arcade: Montego Bay's Black Wall Street

The Rastafari Coral Gardens Benevolent Society's Office at The People's Arcade

A Concise History of the People's Arcade

Entrance of The People's Arcade

As you're driving the Howard Cooke Highway heading south, as you pass Ruby's on your left... do you wonder about the ornate but rusted arch with the words People's Arcade. As we ride through the intense heat and crime wave washing the city in tsunami like fashion, as centres all over the city erupt as the victims of poverty, those promised #prosperity, grapple with global financial warfare, IMF debt, personal debt, urban and spiritual decay. Sometimes I wonder if the public knows what is happening... do you know what is happening in Coombs Lane, in the Market, in the Shoes Arcade, on Hart Street, on Creek Street, Princess Street, in Barnett Lane, in Railway Lane, on the train tracks? Peoples lives are shattered, men are in splinters, women in despair, children losing fathers and mothers to guns and disease. Children living with the faint yet constant anguish of hunger in their little eyes...

Then there are the unsung, unknown valiant heroes, the ones whom, against all odds, much discrimination, victims of economic exclusion, with little access to capital are still boldly standing on the front-line of the Black economy and sometimes the Black Market, without angel investors or incubators, despite vain politics, they eek out a living, to simply take up the challenge of daily vending and juggling in the hustle and bustle of the sun and city. Fending off the vicious cycle that is poverty, trying to safeguard the future, some conservative, some vanguard, but all unknown heroes who are not worshiped on Facebook, the ones who are metaphorically horsewhipped for how their face looks, the ones the media and the press miss. They supply you with water on the highway, peddling fruits or banana chips in the Transportation Centre aka the Bus Park, the peanut porridge, the Jamaica day dresses you purchase each year of your child's school life, the local music, Mobay music... the informal and unofficial hub of Pan African thinking, the surviving pulse of Montego Bay's Black Wall Street... here is an issue of land reform... These are the businesses and people of The People's Arcade , this is their tale!

The People's Arcade was built by the vendors themselves in 1996, and it is strategically located in the Montego Bay Business District adjacent to the Montego Bay Transport Centre and has tremendous possibilities to be transformed into the first micro business incubator outside Kingston. As time and their story evolved, many of the original commercial traders who once occupied the facility abandoned it in response to increased competition in the retail trade and are now operating off St. James Street where they seek to intercept pedestrians and potential consumers pursuant to survival.

MoBay's Black Wall Street

Why is this a Black Wall Street? Well Greenwood a neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma was one of the most successful and wealthiest African American communities in the United States during the early 20th Century, it was popularly known as America's "Black Wall Street" until the terroristic acts of white residents lead to the Tulsa race riot of 1921, in which white residents massacred black residents and razed the neighborhood to the ground. If you put the economics of The People's Arcade into perspective of a racial context, and a global context where Chinese supermarkets are everywhere, Indians control the duty free stores and so on, when one sees a resurfacing Railway Corporation and big business interests, an apparently uncaring local government, one is left to ask, what of Black Enterprise, where is Black Enterprise, who is for Black Enterprise,?

In Montego Bay the answer resides in The People's Arcade. Though much neglected, forgotten or avoided by many a Montegonian, it hasn't been dormant. Businesses still operate and thrive their in the face of poor security and infrastructure. But as many tales go, these businesses have much to contend with, and no good story is without an antagonist. The nemesis of the People presents itself in the form of The Railway Corporation of Jamaica, and a St. James Parish Council that seems to have capitulated to big business interest, rather than opt to eek out a feasible and sustainable system and future for the people of the Arcade.


However, these business now seek the legal impetus and imperative to do safeguard their future... How will this issue play out, as a human rights matter? A matter of land right? Is it a real property issue and a case of adverse possession? Does this issue fit in the ambit of land reform? How will this matter pan out as the people vie for progress by moving themselves from poverty to prosperity! The people have submitted a caveat that has been accepted by the courts, which should impede any action by any agency to bulldoze or hamper the livelihood of the people in The People's Arcade!





With the advent of rising inequality, weak government institutions, failed states, terrorism, corruption, and a whole slew of other socio-economic problems—sown or exacerbated by three decades of neoliberal (IMF type) policies in the “developing world” (Third World)—it is high time we revisit the issue of land reform. We need to bring it back to the center of the discussion on sustainable economic development. What is land reform you might ask? It is the legal and statutory division of land and its reallocation to landless people. Land reform is not political extremism; rather, it is a critical policy mechanism for the city and parliament to address issues of poverty, hunger, urban slums, and good governance.

Kitchen of Axum Veggie Cafe

If we further contextualize the concept of land reform, the entire process of colonial settlement in the Americas and the Caribbean, in Australia and New Zealand was one big land reform, appropriating the lands of indigenous peoples and distributing it to the European settlers. So land reform can be understood as a much more common experience of the “developed” world than it is usually thought of in the economic literature.

The vacancy created by old closed businesses is now being filled by a range of new small business start ups including over twenty one micro garment manufacturing establishments, printeries, shoemakers, electrical contractors, plumbers, two employment agencies, several recording studios, a cyber café, photographic studios, jewelers, custom broker, auto motive parts dealer, health food club, a variety of restaurants, technicians, cosmetologists, laundry and a range of other service providers and retail outlets. These businesses need security of tenure, and after working so hard create a uniquely local and black economics space, I believe it only right that those who have built the place and those that ply their trade there for so many years be granted the opportunity to own and govern their destiny by some means or system.

The Arcade having a ready made physical space to accommodate some three hundred micro businesses, the facility now requires support for management training, help in preparing effective business plans, rendering administrative services, public relations and marketing aid, technical support, business networking, advice on intellectual property and copy rights and help in sourcing finances and funding.

Local Barber Shop!

#‎landrights‬ ‪#‎adversepossession‬ ‪#‎humanrights‬ ‪#‎pnp‬ ‪#‎jlp‬ ‪#‎montegobay‬ ‪#‎jamaica‬ ‪#‎blackwallstreet‬ ‪#‎blackeconomy‬

A Mansion to Mention: The Holness House is a Hot Mess!

As elections draw nigh it seems the JLP wants a debate, but no one wants to debate the hottest issue; Mr. Holness' house. Is it because it could prove Mr. Holness to be a scammer of sorts!

I can understand the JLP's suspicion of bad-mind on the part of the PNP... but does bad-mind prevent the question from being a really legitimate one? I think not! Why shouldn't a public official tell us how he acquired such costly material possessions? Should we live with the shades of doubt as to his funding source and mode of land acquisition?

Andrew's lacks confidence and it is clear and apparent. He makes attempts to seem larger than life and charismatic dusting his Clarkes but he generally strikes me as sterile, rigid, academic and lacking natural cultural affinity.

Now this alleged fashion in which his land acquisition was carried out moves the discussion into the domain of the disingenuous, insincerity and intellectual dishonesty, framing his party negatively before the election.

Should the allegations in the barrage of articles that are flooding my FaceBook be remotely true... then one must question the intention of the formation of the St. Lucian company of which Mr. Holness is the director!

1. Why was a foreign company used to acquire property in Jamaica, his home country, where consequently he is an elected official?

2. How could transaction be allegedly signed stating “while visiting Jamaica”?

3. Are the above questions indicative of his attempt to evade his financial obligations (the paying of taxes) to is homeland?

4. Now if the above questions speak truth of his dishonesty and it may very well be that he is in above his head, then how does he plan to satiate his appetite for affluence and penchant for avarice?

5. Would it be via gaining control of the country’s fiduciary and financial systems?
FINALLY could this grand fraud be a personality trait and character flaw... could the man lacking in confidence be using big house to mask his timid ego and insecurity, could lack of strong self esteem have lead to a need to prove self and commit the fraud!

Mario Dean to Trayvon to Michael Brown... The Black Existential Condition Worsens!

The verdict in Ferguson is this week has been deeply disenchanting and saddening. There are just too many white-on-black police-on-civilian brutalities and violence to dismiss as being accidental. There is evidently an endemic problem of 'Shoot first, ask questions later,' and it cannot continue. There was a travesty of justice Monday night. It’s hurtful to think that someone can be murdered and their killer will walk away free. The recent murder of a 12-year-old black boy confirms there’s an epidemic of police violence in the black communities in the United States and worldwide where the police seem to function as judge, jury and executioner. Brian Becker, director of the Answer Coalition in the U.S. was quoted as saying "Every 28 hours the police kill a black person, usually a black male in the United States."

The Security Forces and Police must be held accountable as well. They are our public servants, civil servant and when they uphold the law and act nobly we will and should respect and just due. However, when they think they are above the law, or are the embodiment of it and act with impunity, they do not deserve our sympathy nor should they be allowed to continue with this mentality.

This latest verdict does not bode well for the civil safety of people anywhere in America. It is an even darker omen and trend worldwide for black folk and the African Diaspora!

Ferguson affects all of us as peoples of African descent. The fires will burn in Ferguson for the pain of injustice for many days to come.

Proposals for Education Ministry and System in Jamaica

Document | Article: Proposals for Education Ministry and System in Jamaica

For a long time the media and most thinks have purported the idea that we live in the information age. We live an age where cell phones and gadgetry pervade all walks of life. Computers and the internet are constantly creeping into our lives. Sociologists will contend that the family is the primary agent of socialization. But most of know and will very well contend that it is the TV. Especially in an age where the family is in crisis and in the third world where the core notion of family lives in a state of flux, the television and cable have taken prominence.

Folklore, Anansy and the oral tradition have been usurped by Sponge Bob, Dora and Hannah Montana. With absentee or limited supervision parenting rampant and the television controlling brain space and time at all times and any given hour, whilst the education system will only have them for 6 to 7 out of 24 hours much of which will be ruled by televisions and corner time no wonder we are unable to transmit and pass on the education, knowledge and morals we need to.

Mister Minister on the heels of your party’s message of change and changing the course, the courses and course of the education system has changed little. At this crucial moment in history the education system with all its short comings are in need of radical overhaul and requires new approaches and revolutionary thought. We need to design a curriculum to stimulate the development of analytical skills. The thing I care most about is that we focus not on the specific set of tools, but on the ability to “learn and apply a current tool set”.

The truth is that we constantly acquire and discard sets of tools. So we should not be fixated on one specific set of tools for all of life. Society, technology and the times change so fast that any fact, process or algorithm we learn at school is by definition not going to be useful for any length of time. The real skills that serve us are the ability to adapt, learn, apply the products of that learning, and participate in the discussions and challenges of the day. That doesn’t mean that facts are useless, or that specific tools don’t matter. Unless you can demonstrate an ability to absorb and apply both, fast, you haven’t actually gained the knack of becoming effective in a given environment.

How can we better communicate with them?

The traditional talk and chalk won’t work with this generation. Our communication style is structured, yet they want freedom. The old order stresses learning, they like experiencing. We react, they relate. We focus on the individual, while they are socially driven. Here are four essentials to consider when engaging with youth today:

Real:

Not only must our communication style be credible, but we must be also. They don’t expect us to know all about their lifestyle, nor do they want us to embrace their culture. They are simply seeking understanding, and respect. If our communication has a hidden agenda, or we are less than transparent, it will be seen. This generation can sniff a phoney from a long distance.

Raw:

Today’s youth have access to the most advanced technology, movie special effects, and video games with which we can never compete. But the good news is that they are not impacted by slick presentations. They don’t want a rehearsed talk, or a manufactured spiel. The more spontaneous and interactive we are in the classroom, the less intimidated, and more open they will be.

Relevant:

Obviously what we are communicating has to fall within their area of interest. But the style, as well as the content of our message must be relevant to a generation who are visually educated and entertained. There is no point in giving music to a friend on a cassette tape if they only have a CD player, or on CD if they only use MP3. Similarly we must research in the most appropriate format for those we are reaching. So in understanding the communication styles of our target cohort we will be better equipped to reach them.

Relational:

There is an old and true saying in education circles: “They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care!” Communicating to this generation requires openness, vulnerability, and genuine interest in those we are trying to teach, and above all else, understanding. The more relaxed the environment, and the more socially conducive to discussions; the better will be the quality of the learning.

The Issue of Text Books and Learning Materials

Today, many children and individuals have MP3 Players, I-Pods, Smart-phones, computers, DVDs and DVD players, Radios and Televisions. Lots of in Jamaica are in some way linked and have some access to the various media. Today, I believe it is a tragedy that books, audio-books, tutorials and classes and the entire Jamaican and Caribbean syllabus are not posted online in PDF on accessible sites, material and content for our youths’ education should already be on their cell phones, in their DVD players, on YouTube.

It is an even more horrendous thought that every entrepreneur with a two-bit dream of becoming a media mogul can implement far reaching cable stations, whilst JIS is relegated to a time slot on TVJ, instead of being a Caribbean BBC, the U.S. has PBS and as a matter of fact the BBC has managed to pervade the island. We have an A.M. Band going to waste and yet I have seen people in small communities with their small means and incomes set up small radio stations and internet radio stations, why is JIS being broadcast, why aren’t we making full use of all the channels and vectors we have that can be used to bombard people with sensible, useful, practical, culturally relevant information.

I have lived to see middle-aged women become interior decorators watching HGTV and seen nearly illiterate dog lovers in the garrison swear they are dog trainers after a few episodes of dog whisperer on Discovery channel. In this vein I do believe if we have relevant content people will be willing to watch it. If you build it they will come. I do believe we have a wealth of content that can be drawn from, old documentaries from JBC and such. More can be commissioned, after all this is the era of YouTube movie directors, Open Source content and citizen journalism.

I am convinced the government has been lacklustre in pursuing technologies such as Linux, Open Source and notions such as FOSS. Brazil, Mexico and India are already using these to bring technology more cheaply to their nation. There are also revolutionary methods of implementing technology in the class room all throughout the Americas.

Also Mr. Holness I am sure you will probably have played dominoes with illiterate people as I have and been beaten by people who have never learnt primary school mathematics, which is proof that the education is disconnected from the everyday realities we face. Someone must have the potential to learn math if he can grasp the process of deduction and numerical elimination it takes to play domino well. We live in the Caribbean and still don’t learn enough about where we live. Why isn’t there our national geographic?

The other day I had to watch on foreign news that lizards that do morning exercises had been discovered in Jamaica. Lots of municipalities and small nation states have set up their own, local intranet that can provide the general populace with basic informational resources, like wikis and encyclopaedias and educational material. Today it is the nation’s own fault we are falling behind in education.

The government must become the primary agent of socialization, as parents and the family are lagging. If we are to grow a nation we need to grow people. We need our human resource to grow and develop. Technology, TV, internet, cell phones and the Radio are the way to reach them.

A Final Word:

The quality outcome of our education system is dependent on our understanding of the youth. Once we have a foundational grasp of their characteristics, communication styles, and social attitudes, we will be well equipped to effectively impact this enormous and emerging generation.

We want to create a curriculum that can:

Be self taught, peer mentored, and effectively evaluated without expert supervision.

Provide tools for analysis that will be general useful across the range of disciplines being taught at any given age.

Be an exercise machine for analysis, process and synthesis.

The idea is not that children learn tools they use for the rest of their lives. That’s not realistic. I don’t use any specific theorems or other mathematics constructs from school today. They should learn tools which they use at school to develop a general ability to learn tools. That general ability – to break a complex problem into pieces, identify familiar patterns in the pieces, solve them using existing tools, and synthesise the results into a view or answer… that’s the skill of analysis, and that’s what we need to ensure the youth graduate with.

Yannick Nesta Pessoa

#education #youth #jamaica #revolution #change #governement #governance 

Open-Sourced Blueprints for Civilization

Open-Sourced Blueprints for Civilization

Farmer Scientist Group wants to Hack Society through OpenSource Technology!