Michael Jackson and Mobay

From MJ’s high to his lows, ‘his heart was always pure’

By Peter Gelzinis
Wednesday, July 8, 2009 - Updated 3d 1h ago




It was a red leather jacket festooned with zippers, not exactly made for the tropical heat of Jamaica’s Montego Bay.

But Cleon James remembered it yesterday with an affection undimmed by time. “Every boy in Jamaica wanted one of those jackets,” he said, as Stevie Wonder’s voice rang out from the flat screen bolted to the wall of his Roxbury barber shop.

“We ran around singing ‘Beat It’ and ‘Thriller,’ dressed up in those leather jackets, pretending we were Michael Jackson,” Cleon said, one eye trained on a customer, the other on a memorial service 3,000 miles away.


“It’s hot enough in Montego Bay as it is,” the barber laughed. “But in a red leather jacket with the zipper up, it’s much worse. But we didn’t care. Every kid wanted to moonwalk like Michael Jackson.”

In the other corner of the “Top Notch Barbershop,” Donald Martin spoke of growing up immersed in the soundtrack of the enigmatic genius now sealed inside a golden coffin.

Jamaica Gleaner News - Queen Ifrica plays, explains 'Montego Bay'

Queen Ifrica plays, explains 'Montego Bay
'Published: Thursday | July 16, 2009
Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

Montego Bay is Queen Ifrica's first album with VP Records.As she presented Montego Bay, her second full-length set, at her first album launch on Tuesday evening, Queen Ifrica's face and posture reflected the mood of the songs.And there was ample time and reason for the changes, Ifrica explaining the background to almost all the songs on the 13-track set in an extended stint at the podium during which she got noticeably more comfortable as time went on, engaging the large audience at Kabana, Hope Road, St Andrew.The trip through an outstanding album actually started with her voice alone, not the actual recording, as after a herald of horns, Ifrica delivered the album's title track a cappella, smiling, the audience cheering at the start and again when she hit the chorus.After the recording was played, Ifrica explained, "Montego Bay is special to me. That's where my whole Rastafari development took place." Still, she noted, the inner-city communities do not see the benefit of the 'lush' from the tourism industry.She was sombre for Streets Are Bloody, dedicating it to 20-year-old Ejaun, "a very close individual to Flames. He was gunned down by a soldier at a club". Ifrica described Ejaun's kindness, respectfulness and computer wizardry, commenting that in the society "the people who do good are the people who die like this". The song has the line "none is immune, Ejaun gone to soon".In My DreamsIfrica smiled as she asked, "Any lovers? Any husband, any wife, any matie?", before In My Dreams was played, rocking away with eyes closed and clasping her left shoulder with her right hand.And when she said "we ago step up the vibe" with Yad To The East, commenting "dis a di man whe dem sey inna Ifrica", Ifrica grinned gloriously as the rhythm hit and the crowd exploded at the opening line, "Selassie I never lose a fight yet".And so it continued, Ifrica often merging her voice with the tail end of the recordings, playfully prodding the audience to more enthusiastic applause and dropping advice on hard work, focus, purpose and the importance of teamwork to younger artistes.She has stuck to a team, as before she sang along to the recorded songs on Tuesday night, Ifrica sang the praises of Tony Rebel, giving the background to starting to work with his Flames Productions in 1998, after performing at a Garnet Silk tribute concert. And among the other persons Ifrica said thanks to was Penthouse's Donovan Germaine who "say I am a granddaughter of Penthouse, because Tony Rebel is a son".Guest speaker Kay Osbourne, general manager of TVJ, heaped praises on Queen Ifrica and Montego Bay, which she described as an awesome collection that showcases the inner workings of Ifrica's mind and soul."It is clear that this unique woman of truth has something to say," Osbourne said, taking a closer look at many of the songs. "She expresses the personal universally," Osbourne said later in her address.However, Osbourne is not impressed with much of Jamaican music being produced currently, pointing out the narcissism, exhibitionism, image manipulation and "the mere ability to attract attention is rewarded".Tony Rebel, who welcomed all to the album launch, spoke about Queen Ifrica's development, from not being able to do a song properly in the studio and having to be told 10 times what to do, that being reduced to thrice, then twice and "now you don't have to say anything".There was a time when she had to be asking producers to go on rhythms; now she is being requested. Long gone are the days when she was trying to get on shows; now there are so many offers she has to decline some."When you have someone like a Queen Ifrica standing up and not taking off her clothes I have to salute her," Rebel said.Extensive exposureIn presenting Montego Bay, Ifrica noted the struggle that her song about incest, Daddy (which appears in English and Spanish), has been going through in terms of getting extensive exposure on the airwaves, although it has connected in the streets and at live performances.When she was asked which track was her favourite Queen Ifrica did not name one, but said that the opening chant, TTPNC, is special, as "it is my whole Rastafarian belief ... That is who I am. I am a Niyabinghi woman".The recordings ended with Far Away, Lady Saw, Assassin, I-Wayne, Capleton and Tarrus Riley embracing Queen Ifrica onstage. It wasn't all over, though, as there was one more a cappella song for her to deliver, the crowd whooping for Keep It To Yourself.

Jamaica Gleaner News - Queen Ifrica plays, explains 'Montego Bay' - Entertainment - Thursday | July 16, 2009

INTERVIEW: Queen Ifrica discusses her Road to Montego Bay

June 8th, 2009 · Posted by: DEAN ROGERS in Hollywood Insider, Music

Recently I had the honor to interview reggae artist QUEEN IFRICA to discuss her upcoming sophomore album, Road to Montego Bay, which will be released on Tuesday, June 16th.

Eclipse Magazine: So tell us about your new album, Road to Montego Bay?

QUEEN IFRICA: The album is about Queen Ifrica introducing herself to the international Reggae world from a female rastafarian point of view with her views and opinions of how we can make a better society. We also take on the subject of love & relationships and just keeping it real. That is Road to Montego Bay in a nutshell.

EM: I’ve noticed that the song Lioness on the Rise showed us your strong spirit. What was your inspiration to writing this song?

QI: This is a very special song because its about empowering women without being sexist while of doing it. It can be appreciated by a man who will be listening to that song. He could get actually get inspiration from where we’re coming from. Even though its about strengthening women and giving women a pat on the back saying “Yeah, you can be a housewife and also be an hard worker of peace.” Even a husband or a son would want to be one of those persons encouraging her along. It lot of this derives from universal innocence in a way.

EM: Coconut Shells feels like a journey back to your roots. Tell us about its inspiration.

QI: Coconut Shells is it a herb song for the Rastafarian community. I associated with reggae music. Its only fitting to do a herb song. Its not a herb song about smoking all day but its from the point of there are things that you can say and get an education from listening to people as oppose to just burning it. Some people can  provide a good mediation while listening to the song.

EM: Finally, “Daddy” is one of the most powerful songs on your album. What can you tell us about this song?

QI: “Daddy, don’t touch me there” speaks for itself. It deals with incest and the things of what it can do to an individual. I talk about it even though its a taboo subject for a lot people.

EM: Speaking of “Daddy”, I read that you presented UNICEF a copy of the CD  during the World Day for the Prevention of Child Abuse and has drawn controversy when it was released. Do you feel that this song will give the voice all those who are affected by child abuse?

QI: Yes, I definitely feel so. I feel its actually an action from the responses I’ve gotten from people who carried it within them for so long and not been able to come and say it out loud. A lot of people have been talking about  going to the police, going to their Mom or their Dad to talk about this thing. I can pat myself on the back for saying that it was my vainess that gave a lot of people who wanted to do this for a while. The courage to come forward.

EM: Do you think Reggae music is in a good place?
Even though it is in a good place, there’s always is going to be destruction because this world is made up of good & evil, depending on the side you choose. The music of reggae was never about class or creed, it was in the sense of the poor. It was born out of poverty. It was born out of people who are downtrodden by society. Therefore, it doesn’t matter if its in America, or Europe, wherever you find people who are suffering, they will always gravitate to music because it soothes the soul.

Music has the power and ability to go beyond the barriers of languages and culture. There’s going to be that element because we live in a world where goodness is never welcomed by negativity. They will do everything to keep it in the dark. You’ll find that because of what reggae music represents. A lot of negative elements that try to tarnish the image in whatever it can. It’s like your blood, you cannot change the color of your blood. You cannot change the vibe that reggae music brought in the form of Bob Marley.

EM: Who were your musical influences growin up?

QI: Definitely Mr. Tony Rivers because he was the only positive Rasta artist that young rasta people could look up to.

EM: Are you planning to tour the world with your music?

QI: Fortunately for me, I been given the priviledge to come to europe a number of times on the count of Tony Rivers. A year from now, I’ll be going on the road to America to do promotional tour on this album coming. Also, looking forward to coming to Europe. i can safely say when I come to Europe, I am happy that Europe always accepts and love my music.

EM: What parts of Europe?

QI: We have gove to Germany, France, Switzerland. You name it, we go right across the board. I went to  this one European island where its close to Africa and there’s beautiful sunshine around the clock.

EM: If you could pick your ultimate place to tour where and why?

QI: It would be more than one place but it would be Paris. There is this one venue in Paris where I had performed where the energy of the audience was totally overwhelming. In the summertime, it would be Italy. The energy and the people is like over the top. What I find is all the other areas that you go to, like the club and the smaller shows. When it comes to the big shows, there are young people who travel from these area and come into the big cities. They have all the fun when they come to the show like the Sundance festival. It’s beautiful the way the little areas come together and explode with excitement.

EM: What is the one message you hope your listeners can take from this album?

QI: When you are aware of yourself its much easier to be aware of your surroundings and how you go about your daily life. When you listen to Queen Ifrica, I see myself an individual who is on a journey of self–awareness and being appreciate of self. You hear it come out in my music because  i want it to sound as beautiful as I would love to sound myself. I hope that the individual that sit down to listen can find their way to theirselves while listening to me because it was speaking to my peers in the form of instructions and advice. It helped me to find myself along the way through music. We each find strength in each other and I hope that the individual would find strength in me.

Look out for Queen Ifrica’s ROAD TO MONTEGO BAY coming to you on Tuesday, June 16th

For Eclipse Magazine, I’m Dean Rogers

Montego Bay and Michael Jackson

Here is an excerpt of an article I found that discusses Mobay and MJ with some NOSTALGIA

From MJ’s high to his lows, ‘his heart was always pure’

By Peter Gelzinis
Wednesday, July 8, 2009

It was a red leather jacket festooned with zippers, not exactly made for the tropical heat of Jamaica’s Montego Bay.

But Cleon James remembered it yesterday with an affection undimmed by time. “Every boy in Jamaica wanted one of those jackets,” he said, as Stevie Wonder’s voice rang out from the flat screen bolted to the wall of his Roxbury barber shop.

“We ran around singing ‘Beat It’ and ‘Thriller,’ dressed up in those leather jackets, pretending we were Michael Jackson,” Cleon said, one eye trained on a customer, the other on a memorial service 3,000 miles away.


“It’s hot enough in Montego Bay as it is,” the barber laughed. “But in a red leather jacket with the zipper up, it’s much worse. But we didn’t care. Every kid wanted to moonwalk like Michael Jackson.”

In the other corner of the “Top Notch Barbershop,” Donald Martin spoke of growing up immersed in the soundtrack of the enigmatic genius now sealed inside a golden coffin.

A mother's secret - Boy triumphs in GSAT not knowing his father had been killed (Jamaica Gleaner)

 

Western Bureau: "My father was killed a week before my exams, but I did not know," reflected 11-year-old student Demoy Kerr from Montego Bay, who was placed at Cornwall College following his success in the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT)...

A mother's secret - Boy triumphs in GSAT not knowing his father had been killed (Jamaica Gleaner)
Thu, 11 Jun 2009 07:05:22 GMT

Jamaican cocaine smuggler to stay in T&T jail - radiojamaica.com

 

Jamaican cocaine smuggler to stay in T&T jail
radiojamaica.com, Jamaica
Rhonda Campbell, 42, of Montego Bay in St. James has been denied bail. She is scheduled to return to court on March 2. Miss Campbell, who is a vendor, was reportedly held with $250000 worth of cocaine. She was held while about to board flight to ...
No bail for 2 women in Piarco drug busts Trinidad & Tobago Express
all 2 news articles

Jamaican cocaine smuggler to stay in T&T jail - radiojamaica.com
Fri, 20 Feb 2009 14:58:20 GMT

Bucknor calls it quits (iafrica.com)

 

Veteran Montego Bay-born umpire Steve Bucknor will retire next month.

Bucknor calls it quits (iafrica.com)
Mon, 23 Feb 2009 06:55:09 GMT

Credit crunch Carnival?

 

How has the global financial crisis affected Carnival in your country this year? Have your say.

Credit crunch Carnival?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/caribbean/
Thu, 19 Feb 2009 16:09:37 GMT

A second album for Queen Ifrica

 

Check out the first single from the Jamaican queen's new album.

A second album for Queen Ifrica
Fri, 13 Feb 2009 01:13:31 GMT

Peter Lloyd

 

Peter Lloyd born in Kingston, now resides in Montego Bay, but is on a steady rise … moving at his own pace, and according to his strategies… to claiming his spot among international reggae legends.

Peter Lloyd
Mon, 15 Dec 2008 23:00:00 GMT

Your Weekend Forecast For Montego Bay, Jamaica

 

Chance of Precipitation: Fri: 10% / Sat: 10% / Sun: 10%. For complete forecast details...

Your Weekend Forecast For Montego Bay, Jamaica
Mon, 16 Feb 2009 15:10:46 GMT

Your 10-Day Forecast for Montego Bay, Jamaica

 

Today: Partly Cloudy & High 80°F / Low 69°F.---- Tue: Partly Cloudy & High 80°F / Low 68°F.---- Wed: Partly Cloudy & High 79°F / Low 69°F.---- Thu & Beyond.... For more details?

Your 10-Day Forecast for Montego Bay, Jamaica
Mon, 16 Feb 2009 15:10:46 GMT

Jamaica moving to secure greater share of Chinese travel market

 

MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica (JIS): The government of Jamaica is moving to secure a greater share of the fast growing Chinese travel market, with estimates are that as many as 90 million Chinese could be traveling abroad annually over the next couple of years, said Tourism Minister, Edmund Bartlett.

Jamaica moving to secure greater share of Chinese travel market
editor@caribbeannetnews.com
Sat, 14 Feb 2009 07:00:00 GMT

Cold Front: World War Woman! (from the Western Mirror)

 

Women are not inherently passive or peaceful. We're not inherently anything but human.
~Robin Morgan

Every girl should use what Mother Nature gave her before Father Time takes it away.

~Laurence J. Peter
The average woman would rather have beauty than brains, because the average man can see better than he can think.

~Author Unknown

Don't wait for the good woman. She doesn't exist.

~CHARLES BUKOWSKI, letter to Steve Richmond, Nov. 1971

Woman was God's second mistake.

~FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE, The Antichrist

Good evening or good morning, greetings I bring whatever time where ever you are. I know if it isn't chilly now, you will at least be feeling the lingering after effect of the cold front. You'll probably be curled up round a cup of coffee or maybe tea, if you are the afternoon-evening-ish person, then you'll likely be nursing some JB or Bush Rum, or just your choice of alcohol, I know you maybe in the middle of indulging in your drug or vice, be it your hair products with your friend in your veranda or outdoor makeshift salon, putting in the Friday hair, or listening in an out to your favorite evening program on the radio, or smoking or using caffeine, or overeating... whatever it is relax, open your mind and indulge me this evening while I put forth maybe a contentious argument. Now take a deep breath, open your mind, stretch a metaphorical mental stretch, make a real one if you must, yawn... and try to imagine the black diaspora, a massive wide expansion of people. There are roughly a billion of us, out of the six billion people on the planet. And guess what we are an endangered species; ravaged by diabetes and the things we eat (high starch diet), cancer with all we consume, with a genetic peculiarity which makes us more prone to catching AIDS, so we sleep unprotected with the enemy, we are attacked by crime, poverty, economic distress, pollution and malnutrition. We possess the weakest economic power as a people. We have none of the worlds most spoken languages, we have no Gods of our own, we have no history. Black History only begins where we encounter the Caucasian and he slaved us, named us slaves after the Slavs and Barbarian tribes they had, and they documented what they believed us to be. What happened to the us before that. We are a weak and broken race of people.

Now in this grand posturing we call Black History Month, or what I call Black Mystery Month, I would like to focus on herstory not his, but hers, yes “Fi ar tory,” today we discuss the roll of the Black woman and child, Queen Omega, the role of the black woman in the malaise of the black nation and their apathy. (I have a feeling this article maybe a two parter) I write this article, one because I realize I've got 3 nieces now, and they will be women one day. My niece Nyla-Joy had her birthday Sunday gone, and the race is off, to black womanhood. I write this because I have a lil (daughter) Poopy, because, I know many women who are falling astray (Careless ooman go dance and leff dem pickney dem at home, cannot care for yourself the Gideon red inna Rome, population under pressure and yet dem have more man a clone- Jr. Gong, The Mission). I write this because I know many women eating out their spoogies and significant others, many have more than one, instead of helping the black man build, instead of building buildings and bodies of work.

Some women opt still in these times when the world seems to be falling apart and the temperament of the people seems to have reached the end of all it can take.to “Gyal-ivant. When boys become are brainwashed on corners everywhere by the teacher, hell bent on putting them in the ramping shop to sell god knows what, and insistent on turning the entire Jamaica in to a Gaza, a desert filled with bodies, where bullets and bombs explode everywhere. In an age where girls will recite on the way from school “that they want it forced into her tripe” probably unaware that her tripe is only led to via her rectum, and anus. A world where the black child hood is none existent, because the children live in concrete jungles and have no place to play, and so become street urchins and street rats, the more enterprising few may become windshield wipers and may even graduate into some small commerce, but that vast majority will be crippled in hospital owing to knives and bullets, another portion will be at Dovecot or Pye River.

Imagine the other day, I had to sit in a taxi and was lucky enough to hear two “Come SEE” girls reveal their diabolical plan for an older man who was interested in her and offering her money. She had planned to lull and loll him along, never taking a dime, and then come (Oscar worthily)crying in dire need and feigned desperation for money in excess of $60,000 for something like backed up rent or school fees, or depending on his gullibility a car. Ha! Now imagine that not even 18. Woman. What have you become, black woman what are you doing? But unfortunately, they weren't much of a surprise to me, that she had planned to find a man to live off, I've seen other women skulking the Internet's social networking sites like Hi5 and Facebook and such, just preying on naïve men to send them money via western union or whoever. Women sell vagina, to get by. Women, girls are digging into taxi-men's pockets, to shopkeeper's pockets to the white collar worker's pocket. I see women playing 4 men just to get a car, her groceries and her rent paid while barely working or flossing on minimum wage.

The Black Woman has become a greedy lot, greedy and acquistive, never interested in giving nor building. Ever insistent and persistent with the belief that her genitalia is all that matters and then they make belief or over talk its virtues, and that it is work every penny in your pocket and that it worth a house and home and a car. Never once giving serious thought to bold and daring, brave sensible logical ideas, plans, to hard work and an honest dollar. Never once working on a belief or dream. Mostly takers and rarely givers. Grown on the belief that something is owed to them for their vagina. Maybe its the Cosmo, or those goddamn Mills & Boons, or the silly ideas passed on to us via foreign literature. But black woman, Rasta a tell unnu plain and straight that can't work come again!

Stay tuned till next week when I round off the argument completely, and ladies try not to his and puff and cuss too much eh!

Yannick Nesta Pessoa

yahnyk.blogspot.com

www.youtube.com/yahnyk

yannickpessoa@yahoo.com

PS. Happy Birthday Mel... Wetters, aka Tickle! (Mi cyah afford a mirror ad :P)

Wasting the people's capital - Jamaica Gleaner

 

Wasting the people's capital
Jamaica Gleaner, Jamaica - 14 hours ago
... economic and social development value, that could have been developed based on the realisation of CAP, is a highway connecting Kingston and Montego Bay. ...

Wasting the people's capital - Jamaica Gleaner
Sun, 15 Feb 2009 07:11:12 GMT

Eastday-Chinese vice president salutes bilateral cooperation in Montego Bay, Jamaica (Eastday.com)

 

Visiting Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping (L) and Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding attend the ground-breaking ceremony for the Montego Bay Convention Center, which is contracted to be built by China, in Montego Bay, Jamaica, Feb. 14, 2009.

Eastday-Chinese vice president salutes bilateral cooperation in Montego Bay, Jamaica (Eastday.com)
Sun, 15 Feb 2009 02:31:07 GMT

Chinese vice president salutes bilateral cooperation in Montego Bay, Jamaica (People's Daily)

 

Visiting Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping on Saturday broke ground for a China-funded convention center in Montego Bay, north of Jamaica. At the ceremony, Xi described the amity between China and Jamaica with a Chinese saying which says bosom friends stay close at heart though thousands of miles apart. The China-Jamaica friendly partnership for common development, established in 2005, has led ...

Chinese vice president salutes bilateral cooperation in Montego Bay, Jamaica (People's Daily)
Sun, 15 Feb 2009 04:38:09 GMT

2008 Review: The International Year of Fluffy

Greetings Montegonians where ever you roam. Welcome to my 2008 Year in Review. Now what a year it was. Death, crime, dying, scamming, economic collapses, economic meltdowns, a half black president, Wall Street collapses akin to Jericho, oil crises, oil prices, sliding dollars, kidnappers in Jamaica, bizarre rape crimes, the fading away from the spotlight of the notorious homo duo (2), Pirates on the high seas in Somalia, Bolts of Jamaican Lightning, Olympics, the usual decade itch to start thinking up a new Armageddon this time it isn’t y2k but 2012… we also had another lackluster year from a different political party than the PNP this time around, we had Mavado and Kartel ascend to the posts of Bounty Killer and Beenie Man… guess who is the Doctor Fish (he who switches, and by the way Mavado won Sting OK… don’t let the media fool you), we had inflation as usual and women jostling for the helm of America, Bush was shoed and booed, and of course I am none the richer.

Montego Bay continued another year and continued her epic struggle to not be the second city, in sports, we followed Tappa on a miracle that almost pulled us to the world cup, and we watched as St. James High a.k.a. Seior School become school kings of the west and though we never copped the Olivia Shield here in the west we gave the Jamaica the best underdog story in a while. Only to be beaten by our own over confidence and of course Kingstonian antics and hubris. The city tore apart at the seams as murders reeled and men brought the blood bath to Sam Sharpe Square. I didn’t see much of Dr. Chang, who for another year has showed us he has no solid plan and approach to the city, so too our Mayors and councilors out west. On a civic and municipal level, we have been treated to a fair and bizarre bazaar of non-ideas, half baked plans, a tradition of simply “tradtionality” and methodology; we’re just doing what has been done, holding meetings and acting busy.

Last year time magazine gave Mr. Obama the prestigious title of person of the year. Errrrrrrrrrr wrong, I disagree completely. I think person of the year goes to FLUFFY, who ever she is where ever she is, and I’ve been a fan along time, Ok. So let me plug a line, all the lovely fluffy women of Mobay unnu can link me (joke, mi nuh waan get no beaten). Yeah, but on a serious note, this was a serious year for the resurgence of the buxom and busty and rubenesque and rotund women. I saw news feature where model agencies started seeking plus size women, a documentary I watch even noted a brand of modern porn they labeled BBW; Big bodied women. Hmmm, then if you perused the social networks, the facebooks and hi5s you’ll have noticed a surge of women or profile titles saying, Fluffy or Fluffy to the world or Fluffy to the flipping universe, whatever status the Diva had a few years back, Fluffy ‘tief it.’ I’ve even seen hybrids a species known as the Fluffy diva, Fluffy was so popular this year I even had a minor debate in a lunch line with a man who was protesting Fluffy’s return, and lamented how “him nuh deh pon that”, “well me deh pond at” no pun intended. Last year women embraced their fat sexuality and their bodies for what they were, or just a hit back at all the years of rib jutting hip poking “Victoria can’t keep a secret” models. Yup in ’08 one of the more positive things was that while crime escalated so did women’s weight from anorexic to fluff, and what can I say, it makes me happy. Whoever figured out the formula for saving women’s self esteem can you please work on crime next please?

Personally, last year for me was terrific in terms of entertaining myself with fluffy eye candy, but on the real it had been a difficult if not grueling year, watching friends die, and people suffer, and general economic decline, it didn’t do wonders for my psyche at all, but I’m glad it’s over, and I hope all the Fluffies stick around in 2009 and I hope we can leave crime and tragedy behind us. Ladies and gentle people 2008 is behind us, STEP IN TH E FUTURE, I’m waiting for you there. “Oh and mek sure unnu carry Fluffy when you a step, caah mi nuh waan see no bag a man inna mi future.”

To you and yours, all the best for the New Year: May the Lord preserve thee from evil, may he preserve thy soul, and may he preserve thy going outs and coming ins from this time forth… Selah!

Yannick Nesta Pessoa
yahnyk.blogspot.com
yannickpessoa@yahoo.com

Ps. Pssssssst Fluffy yuh can e-mail me enuh! (Mi know mi go get beaten now)

Threnody

“crossing that bridge with lessons I've learnt, time is a space between me and you”
~Seal: Prayer for the Dying

“Those who are dead, are not dead, they're just living in my head”
~Coldplay: 43




Good Afternoon, Good Evening and Good Morning, I hope you'll be still enjoying the lovely weather when you get a chance to read this, be huddled at that seat at the shop, or sombrely warming up to that shot of JB which you'll be happy to have excuse to drink, “A Wedda, A Wedda! U nuh see seh time chilly.” Or maybe you're on your verandah, I hope the breeze doesn't hamper your reading too much, but where ever you are I beg and beseige thee, take a very solemn walk with me, a path some of you maybe vaguely acquainted with, some of you not so acquainted with. Our scenario today reminds me of a Stephen King series I read named The Dark Tower. It is a tale of a Gunslinger, who has seen all his friends die and seen his country and his lovers, home and family dessimated and is on the chase to reach a place called The Dark Tower, to defeat a Red King and call out the names of all his fallen friends and reset or restore the order to things. And some things stood out in that book for me and one was an expression he used frequently to describe the changes that he saw took place in his world, and it was this “The world has moved on.” He never said from what, but it was from the point he had marked as the better years of his life.

Now death and loss are things I've always known of, however in my early twenties I realized that I was ill-prepared for it. Because I never realized that as early as 19 and 20, so many of the ones I knew would be gone, and I've come to realize that I have lived under the naïve belief that me and all my friends would grow old, but now I know better. This year I've had to learn of death all too intimately.

A threnody is a song or hymn of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person. The term originates from the Greek word threnoidia, from threnos (lament) + oide (song). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European root wed(uued or ooed)- (to speak) that is also the forefather of such words as ode, tragedy, comedy, parody, melody, and rhapsody. And that is what this article is gentle people all across the land. My Threnody for Paradise Lost. I don't know if it is because we are in a leap year or what but the tragedies this year seemed a many. It all start last year this time. Decemeber 7 to be exact, when a police battalion rolled through Paradise and killed one Cedric Thorpe, also known to many as Goosey. I had seen him, just an hour before, stood and spoke, then continued my journey downtown, by the time I had reached the top of Union Street, people were talking about a Goosey dead, and I paid it absolutely no mind, after I had just spoken to him, must be another one. By the time I was at Perry Street my phone was ringing of the chart, “Yuh hear she dem just kill Mankind!” That set the trend for the year to come, I would be standing out by Likkle Dread loitering before getting food when a friend of mine Homie's father would drive pass in his little red car as per usual, stop get a cigarette at the shop up the road, he would complain of not feeling well, and I would watch him drive off in his little red car, only to have a heart attack and crash less than 4 seconds later. He would drive off into a column and crash and die of heart complication. Just like that life will blindside you, and it is just earth runnings and the way of the world, and leaves us to wonder, what is man...

I would later have to watch my close parri, suffer through the loss of his mother. Then to bear witness to some kind of secret wars being waged in Paradise and watching innocent and young lives spin out and spill out in bloodshed, and then to not really know, what secret games and deeds they had played and been punished for. To watch the life of Sticky Bean get snuffed out for mistaken identity on a rainy day, to hear Bess a shopkeeper's life being wasted away at 6:50 in the morn while drinking tea, to get up the following morning to hear a pretty little girl you watch grow, offer proper council and advice when you could, Madeeks, get wasted away at the same taxi stand you and everyone whoe probably knew her, all before the age of 20. To then watch the spirit of a community die. Shortly after some respit from the urban prowl only to return and hear my good friend, a very spirited old man, very short thin and pixie like, full of verve and life a man that sat amongst thieves, murderers, weed heads, rum heads, youths, gun toters and average Joe's, a Roman Catholic at that, who would always be in spirited debates with me and my entourage about politics and God, and it was always good natured and never got bitter, no matter who we persecuted his belief or angle. His name was Dandy... and he lived by that name, he was always dandy. No one knows how Dandy real died, he just became ill, thin and died. In the space of 2 months that I had not really seen him, he just upped and died. Then there are Jerome (Amoy) and Gwangy (who the front page of the Mirror named Wong by some error in calculation or translation and they even gave him a career as a cane vendor). They gave away their life carelessly by persistent pursuit of bad things. But they were human, they had families and friends, some of whom I am very close to, I knew them. They died. Byron Balfour who I knew, he wasn't fond of me who wrote next to me in the Mirror write on the next page there, so close to me in some regard he died too. And my cousin/unlce on Tate Street... my fallen friends and soldiers are many.

Most days I feel like Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, weeping for all the sorrows I've seen in this world, all the lives we must touch and live to see shattered, for all those who curdle up on the street, under taxi stands and make the concrete jungle their posture pedic, for all my friends who have tossed way their lives to coke and now roam the town like ghosts for all that to die, for it has said, many more will have to suffer and many more will have to die, don't ask me why.

I close with a Peter Gabriel song “I Grieve,” 
“it was only one hour ago
it was all so different then 
there's nothing yet has really sunk in 
looks like it always did 
this flesh and bone 
it's just the way that you would tied in 
now there's no-one home

life carries on 
in the people i meet 
in everyone that's out on the street 
in all the dogs and cats 
in the flies and rats 
in the rot and the rust 
in the ashes and the dust 
life carries on and on and on and on 
life carries on and on and on”

Yannick Pessoa
yannickpessoa@yahoo.com
http://yahnyk.blogspot.com

I Will Remember You CONT'D

Well ladies and gentle people I have to admit last week's article seems to have struck a chord with many people and to think I almost discarded it. Hmmm, now what artistes mean when they say they never know which song on the album is going to be the hit single. Yeah but I digress we were speaking on memory weren't we? Yah I think so! So... yeah we as a people, Jamaican's and Montegonians have forgotten who we are, and just it has always been my belief that it is part of the charter and mandate of Rastafari to be the axis of cultural resistance to European ideas that have been proven historically to never benefit our people and in essence is what a “Far-I” friend of mine, a certain I-an Harper was saying to me the other night when he said Rasta is the memory of the people, and with all truth that is what we are, we the cultural residue and remnants of what it was to be truly African and we are the last desperate hope fighting to keep the remnants alive and to harken the mind of the people to a time before European dominance and to the fight to achieve a sustainable future of our independent thinking and devising! So we as a people have forgotten, but I do remember you!

And last week I spoke of Tate Street and it seemed to resonate with people too. And it seems coincidentally that as the fate would have it Tate Street has proven to be some kind of axis and focal point of energy and if I were one for serious astrological contemplation and in the world of spirits and omens then I would think it had a meaning. As it represents in my mind the golden age of Montego Bay, maybe because of its old world appearance and dimming glimmer of yesteryear charm or maybe its because my mother lived there and she had a million and one fond stories of playing cross from Jarret Park or going to park or when she went to Girl's School, is that Barracks or Corinaldi, I can never remember, then there was my old teacher Ms. Nelson who though teaching at Mt. Alvernia Prep, always said “When I was at Corinaldi yuh see...” then there was my old Aunt Ellis who lived at Tate Street and My mother's hair dresser Patsy lived around the corner, and I loved Satdays at Tate Street because my Grand Aunt Ellis had and eternal supply of soda, coincidentally my Aunt Ellis' son, my cousin-uncle died just recently, so a whole host of the Tate Street cast was at my door step in Paradise, I can't escape. And just when I thought the fates couldn't cross more at Tate Street, here comes my brand new co-worker a young Ms. Wiggan who happens to live on Tate Street and then there is the fact that now when your on Tate Street you have to look in the Mirror, literally and it seems I am compelled to do so figuratively and mentally as well. Seems Tate Streets is about Mirrors and reflections and reflecting. So it seems Tate Street, I remember you.

But I want to get back to the point about the golden age of Montego Bay, because I believe many of today's Montegonians don't remember a Mobay when it was a young city booming with potential and mellow balance of country and town, I think the youth of today have been saddled with the burden of carrying memories of a Mobay that is one big disorganized shanty town and urban nightmare, a failure in planning and myriad of haphazard malls and plazas chucked up on stilts and residence that are concreted to each other and roads riddled with potholes and a city infested with cocaine, crime, homosexuals, dialer, scammers, vain and trivial material pursuits and pursuants. How many will know Coral Wall and Gi-gi beach, how terrible it is to know that many will only know Aquasol and never remember again, Walter Fletcher. How many will forget the ampitheatre that gave way to highways, how many won't know that before civilization and rampant malignant urban sprawl, before the Central Business District (CBD) started its march out ward that Jarret, Tate, McCathy, Hart Street were prime real estate and proud residential communities, instead of rotting board houses and make shift garages and ad hoc concrete creations. How many have forgotten, how many will remember, I remember.

Memories are important people, they are the marks and the milestones and the landmarks in our lives, minds and history that make us who we are, that carry us to this inevitable point, it is what must be used to propel us into the future, but I fear if you cannot remember, ifyou do not remember, then you shall be lost, if you have left your future to be governed by someone else, if you don't know where you have been coming from, what is you liked and cherished, who it is you are, what you are, then you can never keep it, you can never maintain it and you can never restore it. You have name reference or frame work upon which to draw to map and chart your future, for if you trust it to outsiders, Europeans, Americans, gods, Barracks, or any other would be Messiahs then my friend, remember at least this, you are lost. But I remember.

And to all my friends, soldiers, comrades who are wondering why Yannick is M.I.A. don't worry, to all my friends I haven't seen in eons, to even the people who glimpse and barely touched or passed by in my life, to childhood friends from wonder years ago, like Ms. Tamora Decqarish ( I think I lost on the spelling there but), mans and mans from College weh mi nuh see inna years, Cherry, Lisa Thorpe, to Ms. T. Campbell, to even those who malice me, and who feel like dem a mi enemy, every single souljah... I and I remember YOU!

Ancient Memories come on into my soul...

Yannick Nesta Pessoa
yannickpessoa@yahoo.com
http://yahnyk.blogspot.com