Reel Life: Lens Y

3 Things That I Love About Montego Bay

 

3 Things That I Love About Montego Bay
September 12th, 2007 by Galba Bright


From the congested streets of Streatham in South London to the wandering goats and cows of Montego Bay is quite a journey. Robyn McMaster’s invitation to join Robert Hruzek’s My Home Town Meme is a lovely opportunity to reflect on 3 things that I love about Montego Bay, the tourist capital of Jamaica.



Animals At Large

I’ve lived about four miles outside Montego Bay for almost eleven years. I used to be awakened at abour 5:15 am by the daily “clump”, “clump” of cows’ hooves marching by my front door. This daily ritual was fascinating.

I learned that I never really get to “know” cows. I never had in depth conversations with them, yet I certainly learned to respect them.

The Parish Council has since put an end to the dairy procession, yet I still see a grizzled goatherd tending to his goats from time to time. I really enjoy being up front and personal with animals in a setting that isn’t as structured as a zoo.


How To Use Your Naturalistic Intelligence

A relative recently visited me and revealed, to my amazement, that I had a veritable bird sanctuary in my back garden. Sure, I’d seen, heard and enjoyed some woodpeckers and the occasional owl resting hauntingly on a telegraph pole outside our house, but the variety of hawks, nightingales, doctor birds and doves that he expertly pointed out to me was quite amazing.


A Look Out Of The Window

As Montego Bay is a tourist city, people mistakenly believe that those of us who are fortunate to live in the city spend all of our time on the beach. This isn’t my story, yet I’m blessed that Mother Nature’s fantastic gifts are always front, left and centre for even the hardest working Montego Bay resident.

Every morning, I look across the Caribbean sea and experence a wonderful tranquil scene. On Wednesday mornings, a cruise ship eases it’s way into the Bay. My gaze at the same view in the evening brings me a fantastic crimson screen as the fireball red sun sets gently over Negril in the western part of the island. I often sit on the balcony, peruse the view and write my journal.


Building Out Montego Bay

The cows are no longer around because Montego Bay is a growing, developing city, although the downtown area is still congested and needs serious planning. The city now boasts major highways and new hotels stretch throughout the north coast of the island.

In essence, my three favourite things about MOntego Bay are Mother Natures’ blessings of the animal kingdom, beautiful and inspiring scenery and human efforts to improve the physical environment.

Thanks for indulging my off topic reflection. I dedicate this article to the memory of my good friend and visionary Jamaican urban planner, the late Arlene Dixon. Arlene played a major role in inspiring me to make the life-changing decision to move from Streatham to Montego Bay.

Her spirit of humour and her razor sharp thinking lives on.

Hurricane Dean or Hurricane Portia: Not changing nooo course...

Don't mind my use of the double negative yes Yannick does have a better grasp and command of the English language than you so you don't need to correct me... ha... and my vocab... come on pack up yuh bags... anyway I digress...

Here I sit on the cusp of an impending hurricane, the signs are evident it will becoming, I knew it from the very beginning, just sensed it. Or maybe it was the ominous looming sounds of distant thunders on the high seas. Like a warship, a massive vessel full steam ahead with all cannons cranked and aimed at us. I can imagine it, over vast Caribbean seas, dark, thick, rich, like a market woman with a tantrum. Landfall Jamaica will no doubt see what it has never seen before.

The literary and biblical allusions cannot be avoided. Some say this is teh first miracle of Portia, to reverse an irreversible election. Some say it is the armageddon (hmmm the hyperbole) a result of global warming, nuclear testing and mankind's wicked ways. An act of God some say. Pastors are no doubt praying so that it can veer south, and claim credit for acts of nature... silly folk...

Well Yahnyk TV will be bring you the reports, photos, videos and battalion of info, if I survive...

May the King follow you all the days of your life, till/if we meet again... in this life or the next... this is Yannick Nesta Pessoa reporting live from the Gideon battlefields from the frontlines of Jamrock... Some bwoy nuh know dis, dem come around like tourist... (that was my jab at those in the diaspora and off the rock)....

MOBAY at 25

Still hungry for independence from Kingston, still beset by decay

BY MARK CUMMINGS Sunday Observer reporter Sunday, September 18, 2005

MONTEGO Bay has long had an uneasy relationship with the capital Kingston, asserting consistently that it is kept beholden to the seat of government, and that its development has been held ransom to decisions made 125 miles away. Often, the passion is understandable - Montego Bay is filthy in some sections, thriving in others.

Its leaders, mainly those in business and tourism, want the independence and the cash generated from taxes, to decide where the priorities should be placed.

Read on

10 Good Reasons to Live in MoBay

10 Good Reasons to Live in The City of Montego Bay
By Yannick Nesta Pessoa
B.A. in Philosophy
yannickpessoa@gmail.com

1. The Jamaican city with the lowest crime rate.

Montego Bay may not be the largest city in the island or the most active, but it is a city with most of the perquisites of a city; hospitals, schools, fire stations etc. So one can reap all the benefits of a city here and not have the levels of crime face by our country’s other two cities. Though crime is on the rise here, it is not at the level that Kingstonians or Portmore residents have to face. However we ought not to take too much comfort in this fact, if the cancer that is crime is not addressed in a sensible and timely manner, it can bring all development in the city to a grinding halt.

2.  Business opportunities.

Our friendly city, grand as it maybe, still has lots of room for development. The Business arena is no exception. Entertainment, the arts, tertiary education, music industry and technology are all underdeveloped spheres that can do with much more attention. Alternative forms of entertainment in Montego Bay are limited, and people are limited to the Hip Strip. The city suffers immense brain drain and as such a well marketed tertiary institution would prosper if it caught the attention and interest of young minds. I do not think an arts institute would do badly either.

3. The weather and the view.

Montego Bay is blessed by fairly regular rain fall and as such is not prone to the arid conditions seen in some southern parishes and is not drought prone like our islands prime city Kingston. The temperature in the days do not usually stray pass 31 degrees Celsius, and if it ever gets too hot the beach is always a hop sprint and a jump away. A lot of places in the second city allow its residents the luxury of sea views of varying aesthetic value. Of course the ever overstated beaches are always crisp and blue. The sunsets at the site of the old hospital, across from the Pelican as well as at Doctors’ Cave Beach is lends credence to cliché.

4. Near To Everything

In an hour give or take some, you could be rafting at the Martha Brae, climbing Dunn’s River Falls, swimming in Negril, exploring scenic towns of Falmouth, Lucea or Sandy Bay, visiting heritage sites such as Maroon Town, Nyahbinghi camp or investigating the myths of Westmoreland’s “herbal properties.” If ghosts and things of that nature tickle your fancy there is always Rose Hall to see and lots of fishing spots.

5. Cheaper rent and transport the other cities.

Montego Bay has been blessed with scenic locales and affordable living. Rent in Montego Bay is at last 30% cheaper than Kingston. What is $25,000 there, you get for $15,000 here. Even better is that Montego Bay has a cheaper, more organized and more convenient transportation system than the other cities.

6. Some of the best entertainment shows and features in the island

Montego Bay offers, Redstripe Sumfest, Air Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival, Hybrid Events’ Spice, Dancehall Queen Competition, Spring Break, World Clash etc. For the race car aficionados there are all kinds of rally and race events. For the more athletically inclined there is the cities sports realm to explore, football has a very large following in the friendly city.

7. The escoveitch fish at White House.

Well here you get seaside, beach views, ‘scrimmage’ football and the finest fish you can find in our friendly city.

8. We have icons like “The Sam Sharpe Square Preacher.”

Montego Bay if anything is filled with colourful characters. Everyone is bound to have one character that comes to mind who is unique to the city, whether it be a vagrant, a madman, and the religious type women who launch sermons and prayers just about anywhere, a vendor or a taxi man. Mine happens to be the preaching man at Sam Sharpe Square who since my eyes were at my knee has been doing his thing there, the pencils behind the ear, customary white suit, the bible, fruits on the banana leaf and all, screaming  “…and the lord said.” I’m sure every Montegonian has seen him at the very least once.

9. Dead End, the “liveliest” little spot around.

This sweet spot is where those who wish not expend $300 for the luxuries of going to Doctors’ Cave Beach, where sand and sea are free and the setting is crowded by so many accents and pseudo-accents. Music is always there where on an idle radio or in some one’s car. The vibe here exist pretty much 24/7.

10. Montego Bay is where most of the greatest people in the island come from or passed through.

We have a long list of fine Montegonians. One Montegonian who is currently creating waves is the now renowned Siccature Alcock better know as Jah Cure. We have likes of Colin Channer, Rex Nettleford, Aggrey Brown and many more.

Rats overrun MoBay

( I seriously doubt this story caah me live a Mobay and don't see dem, so)
published: Thursday | August 11, 2005

Claudine Housen, Staff Reporter

WESTERN BUREAU:

IN A bid to rid the island's tourism capital of its worsening rat infestation problem, St. James health officials are now preparing a proposal to present to the St. James Parish Council.

"We are working on a rodent control programme, which is to be submitted to the parish council soon," said Dr. Rao Panado, Medical Officer of Health in charge of the St. James Health Department.

The proposal, which is to be submitted in the coming months, comes on the heels of steps taken by the Hanover Health Department, which recently conducted the first of its rodent control seminars to rid Lucea, the parish capital, of rats.

"When the rain fall I don't know where the rats them appear from but we have to run. Them not afraid of anybody and dem big like mongoose," said Montego Bay resident, Dawn Huggins. "The authorities need to do something because the rat dem walk around like them pay tax," she added.

Same old same old: "Sex and the City"

Same old same old… “Sex and the City”

We can't quite decide if the world is growing worse, or if the reporters are just working harder. 
~The Houghton Line, November 1965

Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock. 
~Ben Hecht

They kill good trees to put out bad newspapers. 
~James G. Watt, quoted in Newsweek, 8 March 1982
The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers. 
~Thomas Jefferson

Once again, it seems I will have to take up my role as Montego Bay’s public defender and superhero extraordinaire. The islands longest running paper, The Gleaner has opted to use its platform to bring to the fore, the same old rag story of “Sex in the City” (a title I used the last time I addressed this topic) and try to pass it off as news, in its September 4, 2005 edition of its Sunday edition. Sex in Montego Bay the tourism capital is not “News” it is “Olds”, story that the national papers seem to pick up anytime there is a slow news week. I’ve said this already. My main contention is that these stories only serve as bad publicity for our fair city and worse yet the stories contribute nothing new or substantially different to what we already know about the sex trade here.

None of these well funded papers have taken any time to do real genuine qualitative or quantitative research on what is happening. Sure most of these articles about MoBay and sex from the major national papers will undoubtedly have interviews and quotes from a variety of unnamed sources. It seems impossible to me however, that year after year after year they are unable to produce more people with real names and can point out real and poignant factor that affect them and their lives. I for one am tired of the nameless and faceless participant in the prostitution ring, their anonymity is bordering on fictitiousness now.

Another one of my bones of contention is that none of these articles as feature pieces, never offer solutions but always point to the economic realities and harshness as and tourism influences as usually the sole factors that press along the sex trade in MoBay. What happens to the ones who opt into it for the gratification and the not dire financial but the excess material wants (not needs). I wonder if there aren’t any other variables and issues that lead to or lend themselves to prostitution in Montego Bay. It is also seems odd to me no one has spoken to or rarely speaks to the clientele of these flesh retailers, because business never occurs without customers, so it seems to be a bit imbalanced to not examine the other aspect of the business, and see what new information can be “gleaned” from that vantage point. I’ve also heard that prostitutes in MoBay do have some very ‘cashy’ customers and financially ‘well-endowed’ connoisseurs of flesh that range from the average Joe to some of the friendly city’s prominent members, like Parish Councillors and influential business men.

By the way isn’t there any other feature type stories happening in and around MoBay. Geee, why hasn’t any feature or quantitative or qualitative examination been given to the escalating levels of crime? There are criminals out there that need to be interviewed so we can see what is happening get the real scope and scoop. The police need to be addressed on this. Instead of stories written, I’m almost certain without leaving the desk or the computer in the air-conditioned offices.

Why hasn’t anyone done any feature on the city’s bright sparks as yet, seeing that CXC and ‘A’ level results are out now? Are we going to continue to perpetuate the myth and stigma of the Sex City MoBay? This journalism bias and focus cannot continue much longer. People need to know from these large media platforms that Montego Bay is a multifaceted city, with more to offer than some sex, beach, “Hospitality Jamaica” and Margaritaville. With the revenue and supposed kind of backing that these large media houses have it is a shame they leave the task of the real nitty gritty and some what niche stories to the smaller papers like “The Western Mirror”, “The North Coast Times” and such.

Of course, I’m certain the powers that be and the Mayor in particular will not address either the issue of prostitution in the city or the fact that the media continues to and refuses to paint our city in any other light than a den of sex, sea, sand and scandal. While we are on the subject the tourism interests don’t seem to mind the negative national PR. Sandals MoBay might as well be “Scandals MoBay”, and MoBay might as well be   “‘Ho’–Bay” seeing that if the media is write/right only debauchery occurs in our tourism capital. Montego Bay and Montegonians have so much more to offer the country than sex, I only wish the national paper could see that and make at the very least a reasonable attempt at showing that. So here is to hoping that maybe in this weeks Sunday Edition of the national papers that we see a feature story on MoBay that beyond the now played out lines on Sex in the City.

By Yannick Nesta Pessoa
B.A. in Philosophy
yannickpessoa@gmail.com
or yahnyk@hotmail.com

Sex in the city - MoBay: liberated and decadent

Adrian Frater, News Editor

WESTERN BUREAU:

STRAIGHT OR perverted sex, the choice is yours. Liberated and in your face, in an apparent effort to keep on top of the tourism market, Montego Bay seems to have rebranded and rejigged the popular tourism theme: sea, sand and sex.

With nightclubs offering adult entertainment, aka 'live sex', sex toy shops emerging in a number of plazas, parlours on every corner offering sensuous massages, prostitutes lining major streets, which were once out of bound, old houses giving way to brothels, groups offering call girl services and young girls turning to lesbianism, the city has taken on new life.

Read on

Sex and the City

The whore is despised by the hypocritical world because she has made a realistic assessment of her assets and does not have to rely on fraud to make a living. In an area of human relations where fraud is regular practice between the sexes, her honesty is regarded with a mocking wonder.Prostitutionby Angela Carter1940-1992 British Author

To hear many religious people talk, one would think God created the torso, head, legs and arms, but the devil slapped on the genitals.
Sex
by Don Schrader

The big difference between sex for money and sex for free is that sex for money usually costs less.
Sex and Prostitution
by Brendan Francis
1985 Playboy


Tourism and whorism two terms often used interchangeably when examining the second city are once again topics at the fore. For those who read The Sunday Observer for June 26, 2005 you would have been made aware that the spotlight has been once again placed on Montego Bay where the sex trade is concerned. This may be due the fact that much international pressure has been placed on the island in regards to our tardiness in curbing human trafficking, more commonly known to us as exploitation of children and women, particularly in the sexual arena. The ambiguity of the term aside, one ought to realise that the newly renamed phenomenon of child prostitution is nothing new to the world and here in Jamaica and particularly Montego Bay is nowhere as prolific as it is in the United States where child pornography runs rampant. Child prostitution is wrong wherever it can be found, no doubt, but I can’t help wondering if the local media houses sudden zeal for sighting child prostitution in every nook and cranny was inspired by the barking of the big bad “Uncle Sam.” No doubt, with this spotlight on the tourist capital, there is sure to be an all to cliché spate of rambling and ranting in the media about Montego Bay being the ‘whorism’ centre of the island.

Well if the investigations are true, it would seem the number of women getting too friendly in the friendly city, are not only on the rise but their age is subsequently lowering. The economic logic of entering into “the world’s oldest profession” (and to think they don’t have a union yet) is undeniably easy to see. Firstly in an economic climate where jobs are scarce and the selling of flesh out pays those with a job, the retail of the female genitalia become tempting option to many particularly those that lack the necessary educational background to viably compete on the job market. Secondly in a job where the young are likely to get larger salaries than the veterans in the field/streets (or if the Sunday Observer is right Long and North lane), who really is not going to be tempted by quick money? Third it does not hurt that Montego Bay is easy locale for the earning of foreign exchange and access to foreign clientele.

Montegonians really ought to be used to this played out talk about prostitution in the second city, even with its new “human trafficking” spin. It seems to me that at least once or twice a year when the news slows up and parliament is on a scandal break, Montego Bay becomes canon fodder as it were and some idle editor or reporter dredges up a story on the prostitution scene here. It amazes me that after so many years and so many of these stories, so few of them have added anything substantial to what it is we already know and so few of them have any names, or moving human interest adage that makes it of qualitative relevance. Honestly, prostitution has been apart of MoBay long before most of us were born, older folks will tell you of a time when Fort Street was a haven to ladies of the night. I even remember when the amphitheatre was in front of the KFC on Howard Cooke Boulevard, the throngs of sex seller that flocked their.

Sodom and Gomorrah as MoBay is referred to by the more moral and pious amongst us is no different from any other city or town even. There is no area in the island in which you will not see those black painted buildings with the words exotic, along with some flowers painters in fluorescent or neon colours, usually a red or pinkish hue as well as bright green. This leads me to wonder if the stereotypes that Montego Bay has, tends to cloud or impair the objective lenses of the media. I would also like to know the level of research that went into examining prostitution in Montego Bay. For such an abused and regularly publicized issue, I would like to see more quantitative as well as qualitative evidence.

I would like the Mayor give some response to this, be it a letters to the editors of all media houses, a press release, even a televised address on the community channels, but this bad publicity that the second city is subject to cannot continue indefinitely. If it isn’t bad enough, national newspapers are constantly reminding us that crime is on the rise in Montego Bay and St. James, and if I remember correctly we are now the constituency with the second highest crime rate outside Kingston. If all that is not too much, our Member of Parliament Dr. Chang has also been subject to some negative press. I honestly feel Montego Bay’s plight in terms of crime (of which prostitution is one the last time I checked), our public perception and the morale of the citizens needs immediate address.

Giving prostitution a broader look, I really believe it is about time that it is legalized. If it were legal, we could tax this large income and generate more money for the budget (or some corrupt politician) and ease tax burden. Also we could better control aids, by setting a prostitution regulatory body which could carry out AIDS screening, registering and educating prostitutes (as to how to prevent STDs, use their income and even counselling), and how could I forget, keep out the minors and kids. As with Holland, we could set up red-light districts and keep the sellers of flesh from back alleys where they are even more prone to associate with other crimes or become the victims of crimes. It could keep the women more secure and in control of there lives if we remove the pimps. However all this is just the humble opinion of a simple Montegonian. Till next week, dear reader.

By Yannick Nesta Pessoa
B.A. in Philosophy
yannickpessoa@gmail.com
or yahnyk@hotmail.com

Spirit Continues Caribbean Expansion; More Service to Montego Bay ...

Spirit Continues Caribbean Expansion; More Service to Montego Bay and Intra-Florida Service to Add Convenient Connections to the Caribbean

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 10, 2005--Spirit Airlines continues to strengthen its position as the leading low cost carrier to the Caribbean. Effective November 10, 2005, Spirit will add non-stop service between Orlando and Montego Bay, Jamaica(1). Spirit will also add intra-Florida service with flights from both Orlando (effective November 10) and Tampa (effective December 15) to Fort Lauderdale. This new service to Fort Lauderdale in addition to being available for local traffic will give Tampa and Orlando area residents convenient low fare connections to numerous tropical destinations:

-- Cancun, Mexico

-- Nassau, Bahamas

-- San Juan, Puerto Rico

-- Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

-- Montego Bay, Jamaica

-- Kingston, Jamaica

Read on

Student transport crisis looms in MMTR

Horace Hines Sunday, September 04, 2005

MONTEGO Bay Metro, the bus company that provides student transportation for the Montego Bay metropolitan transport region, says it is without adequate resources to service its routes.

Metro runs on seven routes across three western Jamaica parishes.
But, on Friday, the company said 17, or approximately 60 per cent of its fleet of 28 buses, are in the garage awaiting repairs.

The company said it was still waiting on the government to disburse the funds for the repairs.

Read on

MoBay chamber renews call for convention centre

HORACE HINES, Observer staff reporter
Saturday, September 03, 2005

MONTEGO BAY, St James - President of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry Mark Kerr-Jarrett has renewed the call for the construction of a convention centre in Montego Bay, urging prime minister PJ Patterson to break ground on the project.

"It has been some four or five years that that commitment (to construct the centre) has been given and I don't think we are elephants and we have that long gestation period. I would like to see the birth of this very quickly so that we can drive business in western Jamaica and Jamaica," the chamber president said. "We can open up a new arm of tourism, which is the commercial tourism, and hold large meetings. And so we call on the prime minister to convert on that promise in very, very short order." Kerr-Jarrett was speaking at Wednesday's press launch of Caribbean trade exposition 2005, which is to open on October 7.

Read on

Travelling minimum wage talks starts in MoBay

Observer Reporter Monday, September 05, 2005

THE first in a series of four regional consultations on the National Minimum Wage starts today in Montego Bay, the labour ministry has announced.

Four months ahead of the planned January 2006 implementation of the new increase, the ministry is moving to secure an even wider body of views in town hall-type meetings.

Last adjusted by 20 per cent on January 31, the minimum wage now stands at $2,400 for a 40-hour week. For security guards, it moved 12.5 per cent, from $3,600 per week.

Read on

Emotional welcome for J'can hotel workers in Montego Bay

HORACE HINES, Observer staff reporter
Friday, September 09, 2005

MONTEGO BAY, St James - Emotions ran high at the Donald Sangster International Airport here yesterday as family members came out to meet 80 Jamaican hotel workers who had to cut their contract short in the United States because of the destruction in Louisiana and Mississippi by Hurricane Katrina.

"When it (hurricane) hit Monday night and the place start tear up and you see things just flat down where Burger King was and KFC you just see the pure ground. There was nothing, nothing to see, road split in two, bridges break. It was horrible, but thank God for life and I am glad I am home but I will go back anytime because I have to eat," said a young woman from Glendevon, St James, who was going on the programme for the first time.

Read on

JFJ in MoBay

JFJ opens documentary centre in MoBay Jamaica Observer, Jamaica - Aug 30, 2005 MONTEGO BAY, St James - The human rights group Jamaicans For Justice (JFJ) yesterday opened a library and documentary centre in Montego Bay. ...

Read on

Father and Son Killed

The Montego Bay Police are probing a shooting incident involving a 51 year-old businessman by gunmen at Hart Street on Thursday night. The incident occurred a day after his son was gunned down in the same community. Investigators are now...

Read on

MoBay student gets $100,000 scholarship

Observer Reporter Tuesday, August 23, 2005

A five-year scholarship valued at $100,000.00 has been awarded to Camille Wedderburn, a graduate of Supreme Preparatory School in Montego Bay, who did exceptionally well in her GSAT examinations.

The scholarship, which has been made available through Churches Co-operative Credit Union in Montego Bay, is being presented for the ninth year to top performers in pre-high school examinations.

As part of celebrations for its second year in Montego Bay, Churches Co-operative Credit Union has chosen Camille, who will be attending the Mt Alvernia High School in September, as this year's recipient of the scholarship.

Read on