Songs written for Montego Bay City: A Musical Exploration of MoBay!

My Top 9 Montego Bay Songs

The history of Montego Bay Music and Montego Bay in Music is a very long and storied one. A history too long for this post I have intended... At this moment I wanna peep at songs written for MY CITY, Montego Bay City! Why investigate the city by song you ask? Well...rumor has it that there is a song for every city in America. Many such songs never get further than the city limits others became international hits. Gerard Kenny’s 1978 ode to his hometown ‘New York, New York - So Good They Named It Twice’ spelled the re-birth of America’s largest metropolis after it almost went bankrupt in 1975 and one year after a city-wide blackout shut it down for 25 hours. So the ethos and the brand and the identity of a city we see can be inextricably linked to song and music. In Jamaica the focus is mostly on Kingston, granted Negril gets some good mileage in "Cottage in Negril," and "I want to go to Negril", Linstead is indelibly etched into Jamaican memory via the folk hit "Laad What a Night.. what a Satiday nite!"

Memphis, Tennessee is touted to be mentioned in more songs than any other city in the world, “Walking in Memphis” by Marc Cohn is the one that readily springs to most people’s minds, and coincidentally is the song that inspired me to write a million unsung Mobay songs... but here are some songs titled and inspired by Montego Bay

Before Kartel ever did the Mobay Anthem there was Crazy Chris' anthem... "Welcome to the Second City". A song that marked the fact that western Jamaica was taking the dancehall by storm and never step back from the limelight. This lyrical story is a gritty tale of the guns in the community of Montego Bay, its edgy, rough and raw!

Hezron has this year join the list of artistes that are championing Mobay!

In this next grimy song, by Vybz Kartel though not from Montego Bay, takes us on his detailed and "informative" tour of crime ridden Mobay communities as well as listing all the dons much like a crime noir novella!

 

Popcaan, while in Kartel's tow, seems to have picked up some affection for the second city as well!

 

This Montego Bay song by Queen Ifrica is to The Montegonian, the definitive Montego Bay song. Folksy, yet reggae and pop-ish, it has strong lyrics, vivid site choices in the city, it is grassroot and has local authority!

 

My next favourite Mobay song is by none other than the lyrically profuse and verbose, Lij Tafari... This Montego Bay talent I think is easily on par with Damian Marley lyrically, and is as fresh as Kabaka Pyramid and Protoje.

 

Bobby Bloom as a North American came to Jamaica and found his inspiration in which city?

The rest of the songs that follow are covers of Bobby Bloom's song and give unique and various sonic signatures to the song that make it somewhat their own...

 

 

 

Time For A Change

“Too many so-called leaders of the movement have been made into celebrities and their revolutionary fervour destroyed by mass media. The task is to transform society; only the people can do that – not heroes, not celebrities, not stars. A star’s place is in Hollywood; the revolutionary’s place is in the community with the people.”
Huey P. Newton

“We don't need another hero”
Tina Turner

“As it's been said already, now let it be done, I tell you who we are under the sun”
Bob Marley

These days it seems the popular literary and rhetorical devices for writers and columnists is a combo of epiphany and personal testimony through which the writers seem to take you on a personal journey of insight and realization, its triumphs and tribulations. I guess what readers have come to expect is vicarious insight, momentary wonder, a sliver of hope and small inner tingle and feeling that maybe it's all going to work out after all. Like the Bob Marley song "Every little thing is gonna be alright!" A semi social spiritual buzz or high of sorts!

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I must regretfully inform you dear reader, my long time friend, that this gimmick, the DIY feel good high... it fails to meet the challenges that confront us today. These are complicated and difficult times and are not the days of tidy ready done solutions. The beasts that confront us now, the monkeys on our backs and the Elephant in our rooms don't care about anyone's experience of optimism or your personal gains. Given what is at stake, our great future... then letting our best and brightest waste their time – and the reader's time – cooking up more Chicken Soup for the Soul food crowd than Iyanla Vantz on a Sunday with a living room full of friend with heart break and spiritual influenza. It is repetitive regurgitation of pop psychology and expounding on FaceBook memes. I contend it doesn't fix a soul, the system doesn't change and in general that formula now just doesn't work.

Black authors, writers and leadership today have few or little successes and victories to boast of since the late seventies, the eighties, the nineties or the new century, apart from their own illustrious careers. What of social or activist achievement and outreach? How far has it reached? All this is taking place because black leaders, TV personalities, politicians, musicians, journalists and writers are now into placebo politics and placebo innovation. They recycle on stale ideas and peddle them for more than they are really worth.

What I am getting at is this... those who tell us to “think different,” or it's "time for change" in other words, almost never do so themselves. Year after year, new installments in this unchanging genre are produced and consumed, till re-runs become our history. Who doesn't watching 80's sitcom and cartoons on Youtube? I go to use new technology like the Internet and Project Gutenberg to read"old books." Who hasn't heard politicians recycle old policies and re-branded old documents? Everyone knows that guy in another community that reminds you of someone in your own community. Everyone knows the same jokes, we all hear those nowadays songs that you say but I know that song from somewhere before. We all chit chat on the ends and race each other to the puns and quips we see on TV and rehearsed.

I have an Uncle Bunny from England who is a lofty but inebriated philosopher... he calls it "the procession of the simulacrum" which is to say we are a species and generation of copycats. So it seems the system is suggesting and we are all conforming to the ideas that creativity, is too important to be left to the creative. Our prosperity depends on hustling and idea and inspiration and milking it for what it is worth. This is a system and generation hell bent on cracking the code of creativity and unleash its moneymaking power. Hence everybody peddles their new creative brand of whatever in their particular field. All the P's: JLP, PNP, politicians, pastors, performers, publishers. It' what I call a VistaPrint Paradox... people want to project the image of being unique and creative, but end up at a place that offers designs ready-made via a formula of templates.

We invest our energy in futuristic information technologies, including our cars, but drive them home to rustic charmed homes copied from the 18th century. The future on offer is one in which everything changes, so long as everything stays the same. This timidity is our path to the future and it cannot work. In the words of His Imperial Majesty, Haile Selassie I "we must look into ourselves, into the depth of our souls. We must become something we have never been and for which our education and experience and environment have ill-prepared us. We must become bigger than we have been: more courageous, greater in spirit, larger in outlook. We must become members of a new race, overcoming petty prejudice, owing our ultimate allegiance not to nations but to our fellow men within the human community."

Today more than ever there is a need for bold imagining and designing, different systems of valuation, exchange, accounting of transaction externalities, financing of coordinated planning, etc. Because states plus markets, states versus markets, these are insufficient models, and our conversation is stuck in Cold War gear.

The most recent centuries have seen extraordinary accomplishments in technology and science have improved quality of life. The paradox is that the system we have now – is in the short term what makes the amazing new technologies possible, but in the long run it is also what suppresses their full flowering. The potential for these technologies are both wonderful and horrifying at the same time, FaceBook for all its connectivity and social good, is still an agency which the U.. Government uses to spy on us. A new socio-economic architecture is needed.

However black thinkers and the intelligentsia at home and abroad are utterly self-interested. It cannot begin to mobilize black communities to come up with creative solutions to our current problems. It seems our egotistical black intelligentsia can't begin to make these things happen because foisting itself and its own advancement off as “representing” the black oppressed masses is the beginning and the end of who they are and what they do. They are not truly about the black diaspora and its plight, they do not truly care to ease the existential condition of his brothers, neighbors and friends.

If we really want transformation, we have to slog through the tough issues like history, economics, philosophy, art, ambiguities, contradictions. Bracketing it off to the side to focus just on technology, or just on innovation, actually prevents transformation. Playing with new gadgets, trinkets and toys won't make life better and you know it. Instead of dumbing-down the future, we need to raise the level of general understanding to the level of complexity of the systems in which we are embedded and which has been embedded in us. This is not about "personal stories of inspiration and validation", it's about the difficult and uncertain work of demystification and re-imagining our future, as well as change how we think.

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...

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Bugle ft Julian Marley "Move Dem" Official music video
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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

Jovexx - Holding On | March 2016 UKMTV Endorsing Fresh Jamaican Talent!

Food for thought!

Yannick Pessoa... Name inspired by Yannick Noah... Now Dustin Brown and Keez Pessoa #blog #tennis

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#activism #blog #humanist

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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!

So we start the year... The 2016 Attack Plan...sociocultural economic black packed action... Its Black History & Economy Year... To a new black wall street Jamaica. #blog #readingmakeththeman #jahjahgimmitruelove #economics #blackhistory

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SinBadCity
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21st Century Crime Fighting: CRIME APP

The Jamaica Constabulary Force, I believe needs to employ modern strategy in the campaign against crime. I would like to propose as part of any future initiative addressing crime, that the JCF considers implementing Crime Applications(APPs) for Smart Phones as to best start empowering and engaging citizens. As any Smartphone user will tell you, the Smartphone’s application store is the go to place for tools to make your Smartphone even smarter. Do you want the song playing in the department store on your playlist? Download Shazam. Want to find a telephone number? Get the YellowPages or RedBook app. Want to have the Cashpot Chart at fingertips? Get the Supreme Ventures app. But can an application provide women and students with the tools to empower themselves and help strengthen law enforcement? The creation of a Jamaican Crime application manage by MOCA and INDECOM, regulated by the relevant government agencies and monitored by JFJ would go along way to enable citizens, activists and local actors to take action to improve their communities. By employing the latest in mobile technology to provide urban populations with fast, discrete, and intelligent safety assistance to conveniently help them report and prevent crimes for the 21st century.

Users of a Jamaican Crime App could potentially report an ongoing crime with the push of a button. A package of information including the location of the crime, photo, video, audio, and text description of the crime are sent to authorities immediately. The application also allows for users to report crime ANONYMOUSLY so that they may continue with their busy lives knowing that with a push of a button, police will know and have everything to pursue the criminal. Ordinary users become the eyes and ears of authorities. Submitted issues could be displayed on the city's map, so citizens are aware of crime hot-spots.

There are often tense situations when calling the police is not an option. There are other times when inconvenience or fear of reprisal prevents one from reporting an incident, featuring the ability to take a photo, record video and audio, and provide a description of the incident, citizens could be assured that their phone has the capability to alert family, friends, and the authorities at the push of a button, should a threat arise.

The application would be especially useful to high school and college students, who often find themselves walking back from class late at night, or the victim of sexual assault. What is key, is that the App would empower the average citizen and ordinary bystanders, to report crime instead of ignoring it.

Local law enforcement organizations are expected to tailor their services to suit the citizenry it intends to serve and protect. In today’s world, everything is going mobile… why not crime prevention? Jamaica's local authorities need a 21st century make-over when it comes to reporting and preventing crimes.

Now... while mobile apps are the most obvious example of how organizations are responding to the public's demands. With reduced budgets, there is no denying that making sure public services and information can be delivered via a mobile phone in an accessible way, whilst keeping up with changes in technology is a hard task... there are a variety of projects of this nature in action today all across the world in a variety of nationalities and municipalities, many of them using OPEN SOURCE options.

Once again... it is therefore incumbent on our relevant ministries and national constabulary to explore these options earnestly and zealously. For a truly user-centered digital application, adapted to the needs of local communities can quickly and affordably achieved, as well as possibly effecting much change and altering our social climate. We must now think local and act global!

Jamaica and the Trans Pacific Partnership

America's New Secret Nafta!

Jamaica needs to urgently start examining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). I am imploring that both the Ministry of Finance and Planning and the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce, consider the future implications of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. In November 2011, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced Washington’s official pivot to Asia. Outlining a vision for an Asia-Pacific Century, Secretary Clinton described a desired symbiotic and unfettered relationship between the two regions that will provide “unprecedented opportunities for investment, trade, and access to cutting-edge technology.” At the center of this pivot has been the TPP, an enigmatic trade pact that has been hailed as a true “21st century agreement,” a purported free trade deal between 11 countries, including the U.S., Canada and Japan, which has been in negotiations for some years.

As a centerpiece of President Obama’s pivot to Asia, which includes Latin America via the TPP, the trade pact sets a powerful, if not potentially dangerous, precedent for future trade agreements in the emerging region. But instead of encouraging sustainable economic trends and responsible transnational relations, the TPP could enact the same policies that have been proven detrimental in past smaller-scale agreements like NAFTA. The TPP rhetoric misrepresents the potential of free trade as it encourages, through greater international regulations, such as those seen in the intellectual property and investment chapters, the creation of domestic policies to manipulate the international market. Often, these actions strengthen the economically powerful, particularly by granting to the leadership the right to set its own nation’s course of action and implement its own visions, while those at the margins suffer. Thus, the TPP presents a troubling case of free trade being purchased at too great a price.

Let us remember that after the United States, Canada and Mexico agreed to become a single market as part of the North American Free Trade Agreement, their exports to each other boomed. But here in the Caribbean, the economies of America's much smaller neighbours reeled from the impact of that success and found it almost impossible to compete. From the apparel plants of Jamaica to the sugar-cane fields of Trinidad, Nafta  resulted in the loss of jobs, markets and income for the vulnerable island nations of the region.

Nafta's devastating effect on the Caribbean was widely fore-casted before the treaty's passage in 1993 and Washington had suggested it would cushion the blow by extending similar trade preferences to the island nations. However, the Clinton Administration's proposals to give the Caribbean ''Nafta parity'' was twice foundered in Congress in election years. It is then easy to see the troubles of the TPP which seems would come into effect vrey close to the U.S. election season.

When Nafta went into effect, the creation of new jobs in Jamaica stopped altogether and overall unemployment rose to 16 percent from 9.5 percent, according to the Statistical Institute of Jamaica. In Mexico it failed to provide equitable stipulations for labor conditions, environmental protection, or investment regulations. Laborers on both sides of the border saw their collective bargaining powers diminish after NAFTA.

Critics of Nafta then, contended that NAFTA should have been transformed from a “free” trade agreement to a “fair” trade agreement through revisions that create jobs instead of destroying them, protect workers, and create an environment that allowed citizens to stay in their home country and earn a fair living wage.

So it is no surprise then that critics of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement have noted that the deal has little to do with free trade. Rather, the TPP is about limiting regulation, helping corporate interests and imposes fiercer standards of intellectual property (to, again, largely benefit corporate interests).

Noam Chomsky has decried the TPP, he told HuffPost Live that the deal, which is not yet finalized, is “designed to carry forward the neoliberal project to maximize profit and domination, and to set the working people in the world in competition with one another so as to lower wages to increase insecurity.”

Chomsky said it was “a joke” that the deal is designated a “free trade” agreement. “It’s called free trade, but that’s just a joke,” Chomsky said. “These are extreme, highly protectionist measures designed to undermine freedom of trade. In fact, much of what’s leaked about the TPP indicates that it’s not about trade at all, it’s about investor rights.”

On reviewing the leaked draft TPP chapter, intellectual property law expert Dr. Matthew Rimmer called the deal, “a Christmas wish-list for major corporations.”

This so-called trade pact of the future covers far more than just trade, with chapters addressing modern topics such as an extension of investment past real property, intellectual property rights, and environmental standards among others. There is no question that the agreement would positively affect many signatory nations’ economies; however, many of the proposed regulations pushed by the U.S. would violate regional domestic laws while compromising national sovereignty.

As a Jamaican I am asking in particular the Honourable Anthony Hylton, Jamaica's Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce, to be cognizant of the impact of the TPP and its implications for International Law and our domestic laws. I also ask that in any international bargaining that we be put on a level playing field with other international players, and to secure strong lobby and collective bargaining power to secure our owning international commercial future! I ask that the Minister secure us  the opportunity not to be prevented from taking full advantage of the International markets now and not when we begin reeling from the impact of the TPP.

The Perm Culture Has Been Linked To Epidemic Of Fibroids in Black Women

The results of a new study in the American Journal of Epidemiology have some black women thinking about going “au natural” when it comes to their hair. A published paper from researchers at Boston ... from http://ift.tt/1LtRSAk in The Montegonian Montego Bay Jamaica - NEWS News and such out of…

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Productions from Morant Bay to Montego Bay

Opening today are The Black That I Am (Fairfield Theatre, Montego Bay) and ... The vision the latter has for a new Jamaica is an important theme. from http://dlvr.it/CSQKS8 in The Montegonian Montego Bay Jamaica - NEWS News and such out of Montego Bay, Jamaica... from http://dlvr.it/CSQWck…… from……

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Golden aged standard-bearers target Gordon House

Then there are Derrick Kellier, the member of parliament for St James South, and Dr Omar Davies, who has represented South St Andrew for the past ... from http://dlvr.it/CSRRhC in The Montegonian Montego Bay Jamaica - NEWS News and such out of Montego Bay, Jamaica... from… from…

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US Ambassador Lauds Relationship Between JA and US

United States Ambassador to Jamaica, His Excellency, Luis Moreno ... Expo at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in St. James on Friday October 9.

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Delta Evacuates Plane in Jamaica After Faulty Report of Fire

Nobody was injured in the afternoon incident at Sangster International Airport in the northern tourist city of Montego Bay. A Delta spokeswoman said ...

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The Montegonian: Sangster Airport reopens

Sangster Airport reopens

 

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The Montegonian: Sangster Airport closed, flights diverted to NMIA

Sangster Airport closed, flights diverted to NMIA

 

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The Montegonian: Veteran Broadcaster Receives Award

Veteran Broadcaster Receives Award

 

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FB Highlights

Posted by The Montegonian on Saturday, September 12, 2015

Posted by The Montegonian on Saturday, September 12, 2015

7 Health Benefits of Jackfruit!

Bureaucracy Stifling Activism in Jamaica!

Today in Jamaica there are countless grassroots projects under way, yet the economic hurdles can seem too much to overcome, but the people continue nonetheless. However as more and more of us are becoming aware of how disastrous the global economy and the IMF's agenda are for the people of Jamaica and the planet, I believe that the chances for meaningful change are greater today than ever before, BUT the Government needs to do more to facilitate the empowerment of the people. Grassroots activism and collective social groups like people's cooperatives, neighborhood watches, resident's association, youth clubs, which are suppose to level the playing field for citizen participation in our democratic society, and leverage people power on the community's behalf are being stymied and stemmed unnecessary bureaucracy and confusing, if not confining legal parameters.

Organization born of citizens and community residents are made to jump through legal loops to gain recognition as a legal entity, they then have to meet one of many government agency's criteria of proper organizational running, then only to find themselves confined in the functions, roles and parameters, depending on the legal entity  you are recognized as. Then not to mention the general foot dragging at every level of the bureaucracy and link in the chain of command.

The average Jamaican people's group is faced with Anti-gang legislation which threatens their freedom of assembly, then after you have managed to get a formal set up, elections with posts and treasurers, have regular meetings, then comes registration, you register with SDC, CDC, PDC, NYDC, NYS and all the acronyms, some of them come to meetings, some talk, but very little comes of it. Then your organization dreams of doing outreach and revenue generating... the legal hurdles then begin, do you register as a Company with the Registrar of Companies, or as Friendly Society or a Benevolent Society or a Co-operative??? Each of which has confinements and restrictions as to what your group can and cannot do, legal functions etc. I contend that there can be no sensible and effective organization of the people with so much Red Tape. It leads to a quagmire of frustration.

The environmental costs (Goat Island and access to water) of the current system have been visible for quite some time; now the social consequences, too, are becoming clearer. The gap between 'have' and 'have-not' is escalating to epic proportions; the average Jamaican is seeing his or her real incomes decline, and must work longer hours just to cover basic needs. Our government, like many around the world is too poor to meet their obligations and hence now respond to the wishes of international lenders rather than their own citizens.  People are beginning to understand that something is fundamentally wrong, and that minor tinkering with the current system is not the answer. Help us to help ourselves; enable and empower citizens, communities and activists... cut the red tape that restricts community and citizens based organizations.

The Cup of Life!

The Montegonian Proposal

The C.U.P. of Life

"My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will."

Matthew 26:39

"Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over."

Psalms 23

"Life is, Sheer passion , You have to fill, The cup with love, In order to live, You have to fight/struggle, A heart to win."

Ricky Martin- English Translation of “La Copa de la Vida”

“The deeper that sorrow carves into your being the more joy you can contain. Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?”

Kahlil Gibran

 “At the third cup, wine drinks the man”

 Hokekyo Sho

I have a proposition for my future MP, my councillor, my community. A CUP… what kind of cup you might ask! Well the Community Upliftment Program. Well it is the propositional brainchild of the Montegonian no doubt, but what it needs is political will, community spirit and probably some financing.

An Argument for Community Development

Welcome to a 21st century in which many cities, in many countries, link the revitalization of the central business district and renovation and improvement of houses or districts so that it conforms to middle-class taste of residential neighbourhoods to earlier community development initiatives. In this day and age it is undoubtable that we need policies based construction and more on renovation and investment, and today these new kinds of policies are an integral part of many local governments worldwide, often combined with small and big business incentives.

Community development seeks to give power to individuals and groups of people by providing these groups with the skills, proficiency and expertise they require to make and cause change in their own communities. These skills are often focused around building political power through the formation of large social groups working for a common plan. Community developers have to understand both how to work with individuals and how to change and elevate communities' positions within the context of larger social institutions and society.

Essentialy community development is the process of developing active and sustainable communities based on social justice and mutual respect. It is about influencing power structures to remove the barriers that prevent people from participating in the issues that affect their lives. Community Development expresses values of fairness, equality, accountability, opportunity, choice, participation, mutuality, reciprocity and continuous learning. Educating, enabling and empowering are at the core of Community Development.

Several angles can be taken to initiate community development including: Community economic development, Community capacity building, Social capital formation, Political participatory development, Ecologically sustainable development, Asset-based community development, Faith-based community development.

The proposed CUP, community upliftment program, would be a two pronged approach to developing communities, one, on the macro level and the other being the micro level. This is to say that they need to address issues that affect the community as whole and their position in the bigger scheme and order of things, and next to address the community on an individual and family level, the level of familiarity which exists in the common community family. Cup I believe needs to be and is designed to address the peculiarities of Montegonian families and communities.

CUP: The Macro Plan

1. Economic Opportunity - including job creation within the community and throughout the region, entrepreneurial initiatives, small business expansion, and training for jobs that offer upward mobility. Training that includes life skills training, things like “making technology work for you” “some office procedure” “home economics: budgeting” “shopkeeping math and accounting” “some fundamental nutrition” “Spanish: lite or beginners or simply basic conversation” “Computer training that offers more than just word processing but, teaches that and offers optional diversification, like intro to digital music, or graphic design, or music engineering, and the range of other directions computer can take you.”

2. Sustainable Community Development - to advance the creation of livable and vibrant communities through comprehensive approaches that coordinate economic (FUND RAISERS- new and innovative ones, not ticket sale or conventional dance), physical, environmental (gardens, parks and community monuments), community, and human development ( help families through hurdles like education and home making and developing);

3. Community-Based Partnerships - involving participation of all segments of the community, including the political and governmental leadership, community groups, health and social service groups, environmental groups, religious organizations, the private and nonprofit sectors, centers of learning, other community institutions, concerned citizens and low-income residents. We need to move away from the constant one shot solo projects and find ways to incorporate everybody who is doing something in what we are doing;

4. Strategic Vision for Change - which identifies what the community will become and develops a strategic map for revitalization.

CUP: The Micro Approach

1. Community Week – It is full time we initiated a system where each community has a week for itself. A week of festivity and commemoration of their existence and history. There can be a memories day, where everybody carries out their old pictures, video footage, any big dance that made it to DVD etc, if you have cell phone clips or whatever,  to be displayed and everybody can reminisce, and this way the generations can mix and mingle and pass on stories of yesteryear etc. There can be a big Sunday dinner, a Friday dance, a memorial for all those passed. I wouldn’t be averse to a Church service day where most people go to church and commune or whatever and Muslim similarly and a Rasta event etc.

2. Change for change – In order to finance things like back to school and kiddies treats etc, set up a bar and shopkeeper program where people contribute change in order to secure a set amount of exercise books or pencils and things like that for generation next.

3. Orchard and Garden Program –A system to access idle lands in areas to be planted up with fruit trees and such, to ease the burdens of GCT, save us from dry goods and diabetes, nutrition needs, and rescue the little air and ozone we have left.

4. Naming and Mapping – The proper naming and mapping out of communities, and naming of streets, so that people can actually feel like they live somewhere, instead of in hell with names like hmmm dead man alley, Afghanistan, Bagdad, Gaza, Tel Aviv, Vietnam, Blood Lane, Piss Lane, Corn Corner and you get the picture. We need to resolve the psychological impact of feeling like you don’t live anywhere, especially when you and a million people share the same address, which is usually the most popular main road in your community.

5. Sports Outlets- Do I need to explain how critical sports are? Well hmmm other than finding things to do for idle hands before the devil, well it hones natural talent, potential financial rewards, keeps young minds away from guns, avenues to release sexual energy instead of making unwanted babies etc.

Well that is my proposition folks, maybe someone actually uses it.

yannickpessoa@yahoo.com

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.

Black Friday Message from The Montegonian!

We here at The Montegonian know many of you will be flying out for or making purchase online during #BlackFriday to get that long desired #tablet, #wireless speakers, #toytrainsets and get the jump on the early #Christmas shopping, but we ask that you be cautious as commerce increases and onlines sales as well, especially via #creditcard, we ask that you be cautious and vigilant. #Identitytheft is rampant these days #fraud and #cybercrime is up. Just as you once had to be on the look out for pick pockets downtown now is the age we must be wary of bad #hackers and #scammers! Please also remember this is a season of giving ask #WWJD what would Jesus do and not #WWJB what would Jesus buy. Also as a people remember that after #Walmart and #BlackFriday comes #WhiteSaturday! A fool and his money are soon parted, remember, spend wisely! Hotep... Selah!