Lot 7N DELISSER DRIVE, Montego Bay, St. James Parish Land for Sale - Realtor.com

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Most matches in WTESTs at WI: Jarrett Park, Montego Bay, Jamaica - vs West Indies Women

Find WI: Jarrett Park, Montego Bay, Jamaica cricket ground Women Test match individual most matches career on Cricinfo. Check stats and records of ...

source https://www.cricinfo.com/records/ground/individual-most-matches-career/wi-jarrett-park-montego-bay-jamaica-616/women-s-test-matches-8?opposition=3867

Most runs conceded in an innings in WTESTs at WI: Jarrett Park, Montego Bay, Jamaica - Cricinfo

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source https://www.cricinfo.com/records/ground/bowling-most-runs-conceded-innings/wi-jarrett-park-montego-bay-jamaica-616/women-s-test-matches-8?opposition=3867

Highest match aggregates in WTESTs at WI: Jarrett Park, Montego Bay, Jamaica - Cricinfo

Find WI: Jarrett Park, Montego Bay, Jamaica cricket ground Women Test match team highest match aggregates on Cricinfo. Check stats and records of ...

source https://www.cricinfo.com/records/ground/team-highest-match-aggregates/wi-jarrett-park-montego-bay-jamaica-616/women-s-test-matches-8

Most ten-wickets-in-a-match in WTESTs at WI: Jarrett Park, Montego Bay, Jamaica - Cricinfo

Find WI: Jarrett Park, Montego Bay, Jamaica cricket ground Women Test match bowling most 10wm career on Cricinfo. Check stats and records of Women ...

source https://www.cricinfo.com/records/ground/bowling-most-10wm-career/wi-jarrett-park-montego-bay-jamaica-616/women-s-test-matches-8

PART OF CONTENT, Montego Bay, St. James Parish Land for Sale - Realtor.com

... JamaicaSt. James ParishMontego BayPART OF CONTENT. Offline. Image not available. Listing Not Exist. Not available. Property was deleted, sold or ...

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PARADISE ACRES 137, Montego Bay, St. James Parish House for Sale - Realtor.com

... JamaicaSt. James ParishMontego BayPARADISE ACRES 137. Offline. Image not available. Listing Not Exist. Not available. Property was deleted, sold or ...

source https://www.realtor.com/international/jm/paradise-acres-137-montego-bay-st-james-parish-120073155901?page=3%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F////////

Election 2025, North West, St. James

From the Montegonian News Desk here's what you should know about the potential face-off between Horace Chang and Allan Bernard in the 2025 election for the North West Montego Bay seat:

Candidates:

• Horace Chang: The incumbent MP for St. James North Western since 2002. He represents the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). Chang is also the current Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Security.
• Allan Bernard: He is the People's National Party (PNP) candidate for St. James North Western. Bernard is a community development specialist and UWI lecturer. He has been involved in community work for over 30 years.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqziQgnJq2c)

Key Points and Issues:

• Chang's Experience: Horace Chang has a long political career, starting in 1976. He has served as a Member of Parliament for Western Hanover and North West St. James, and has held ministerial positions.
• Bernard's Background: Allan Bernard has a background in policy and development, having worked with organizations such as the Organization of American States, the European Union, and the United Nations Development Program.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cebhTNoq0YA)

• PNP's Strategy: The PNP is banking on young aspirants like Bernard to break the JLP's control in St. James.
• Bernard's Confidence: Allan Bernard has stated that he is not afraid to challenge Horace Chang, a political heavyweight. 

(https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2025/02/15/pnp-banking-young-aspirants-break-jlp-control-st-james/)

Campaign Issues: Bernard intends to challenge what he views as "down-trodden policies" of the current government and improve the quality of life for people in North West St James.

(https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2023/10/31/if-i-dont-trod-rastafari/)

Legal Battles Over Campaign Signs: In April 2025, the St. James Municipal Corporation removed PNP campaign signs, leading to legal action by Bernard and other PNP candidates. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the PNP, halting the removal of their signs 

(https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2025/06/10/putting-right-back/)

(https://our.today/tag/allan-bernard/)

Bernard's Vision: Bernard emphasizes empowering the people and ensuring a better quality of life. He believes the PNP will win the upcoming election.

Rastafari Tenets: Bernard has stated that he will uphold the tenets of Rastafari in his political representation.

---

Learn more:

1. [Horace Chang - Office of the Prime Minister](https://opm.gov.jm/cabinet_ministers/horace-chang/)

2. [Jamaica Labour Party - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaica_Labour_Party)

3. [Horace Chang - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_Chang)

4. [Horace Chang - Jamaica Information Service](https://jis.gov.jm/government/ministers/dr-horace-chang/)

5. ['If I don't trod Rastafari' - Jamaica Observer](https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2023/10/31/if-i-dont-trod-rastafari/)

6. [Allan Bernard: I'm Not Afraid to Face Horace Chang - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqziQgnJq2c)

7. [ALLAN BERNARD- PNP CANDIDATE NORTH WEST ST JAMES: A TRUE VISIONARY FOR THE PEOPLE - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cebhTNoq0YA)

8. [PNP banking on young aspirants to break JLP control of St James - Jamaica Observer](https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2025/02/15/pnp-banking-young-aspirants-break-jlp-control-st-james/)

9. ['We putting them right back' - Jamaica Observer](https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2025/06/10/putting-right-back/)

10. [Allan Bernard - Our Today](https://our.today/tag/allan-bernard/)

Barricade Situation, Montego Bay, Jamaica - Atlas News

... Montego Bay, Jamaica. Those reports detailed that two prisoners were shot after a prisoner seized the weapon of an officer at the station. Local ...

source https://theatlasnews.co/brief/2024/05/18/barricade-situation-montego-bay-jamaica/

A Concise History of MoBay

SOE WHAT? Mitigating Jamaican Crime

 

“Police inevitably become corrupt... Police always observe that criminals prosper. It takes a pretty dull policeman to miss the fact that the position of authority is the most prosperous criminal position available.”
― Frank Herbert, God Emperor of Dune

The Jamaican Constabulary Force (#JCF) is the main law enforcement agency in Jamaica. They are responsible for the country-wide #crime investigation and management, they are creatures of statute and as the government's legal arm of violence, beholden to the Ministry of National Security which is presided over my M.P. Dr. Horace Chang. JCF is an agency of government that enforces the law of the land. They also furbish the government with revenues, amounting to millions of dollars every year through court fines and seizure of assets. Despite this, they are treated with scant regard and rewarded with inadequate remuneration for their service. Crime in Jamaica is a serious and complex issue. Massive amounts of money and manpower are spent on reducing and preventing crime on a daily basis. Yet the Jamaican police have been a less than successful institution in helping to reduce crime rates significantly over time. Why?

Well... if I am to surmise and summarize the current state of the nation, our government does not listen to stakeholders, the citizenry and even the police.

Is the State of Emergency a Crime Plan?

THE STATE OF EMERGENCY is not a CRIME PLAN. That is this humble writer's opinion and I am sure it is the opinion of an overworked police force. It is a political device that combines two philosophically different organizations into a haphazard patchwork  where they trip over each other and pose unforeseen hiccups in judicial and legal procedure. The military is a defense focused organization that though trained for combat, is not trained to combat civilians, not familiar with civil law or mechanics of criminal law and procedure. But most crucially, from a tactical perspective Jamaica Defense Force, is not geared towards active pursuit of criminals but are geared towards "holding the fort", defending and usually with less regard to civilian law. The JCF is an ever evolving creature whose tactics have to constantly adapt to the shifting and morphing nature of crime, while diligently tiptoeing around the law or doing acrobatics and contortions within the confines of legality.

If the SOE had worked last year our government wouldn't be griping about the opposition's opposition to the S.O.E. now. And most definitely the government wouldn’t need to be having one now. Three years ago February at the near beginning of our Emergency State, I stated that I believed that we need better policing and forensics as no long-term improvements were achieved by 3 years of SOEs, violent crime still plagues our nation. The #SOE is just a drastic short-term emergency response, not a sustainable strategy to reduce crime. There have been no measures accompanying the SOE geared at turning around Jamaica’s crime problem. Social intervention is handled like n a flash in the pan or a momentary public relations stunt rather than a sustained effort.

During recent salary negotiations the Government offered the JCF a four per cent increase on their measly salary and expects them to function at full throttle for another SOE. This situation is unreasonable and untenable, and the Government needs to rethink its strategy or risk losing members, which they can least afford at this time. When speaking to a police friend of mine, he complained bitterly that this has been a sticking point from the day when Bruce Golding said he wouldn’t give them one red cent more! The problems pestering the police force, such as poor working conditions, remuneration, among others, did not happen overnight. Successive governments from either of the two political parties have had to deal with these issues and none have adequately addressed the concerns of the members.

SOE What Now?

When the first SOE was declared in January 2018, murder tallies would reach 1,287 that year. It increased to 1,339 in 2019 and then slightly decreased in 2020 to 1,323. So even Stevie Wonder and Bredda Bull can see that SOE is not the answer as criminals continue to impact the economy and productive segment of society. And now... people have to sit in miserable conditions in hospitals and through curfews and COVID restriction, only to have their rights further stripped away. 

What we are getting wrong, is that we have tried it all... already. What is said of someone who does the same thing expecting different results? They are mad. Are our heads of state collectively mad? Furthermore what seems dim witted in these desperate plans we keep repeating is that it pretends crime in Jamaica is simply a problem of a limited number of criminals holding us all for ransom. So if we lock away or execute enough of the criminals the crime will stop or at least be reduced. Such analysis never considers the larger truth that the number of criminals is not finite at all, and that there are structures in Jamaica that produce and encourage criminality. As Sir P of PolitricksWatch likes to put it, Jamaica has a conveyor belt the spits out criminals. And worse, what if these criminals do not fear death or dying? What if they’ve always accepted that as an inevitability? What would have been your point in trying to drive ‘fear’ into their hearts then? Are we adopting the concepts of comic book characters like Batman and Daredevil, who operate on an ethic rooted in fear?

The other day I was reasoning with a breddrin, fellow Cornwallian from Granville. Bobo… and he gave me some profound insight. He had been reasoning with a juvenile from Granville who had been detained during the state of emergency, and he recalled the youth who had been innocent to the inner workings of crime, was now telling him how being locked up had let him meet a whole lot of real criminals in jail and had become “linkees” or “chargees” and “parries”as it were. SO not only did the state of emergency not work and failed to address the root causes of crime… it afforded crime some rest time to foment and ferment, crime got to network to think! Worst of all, by grouping members of the same demographic ages 14 to around 28 from diverse walks of life, allowing them to meet and greet with crime, up close and personal. The monstrous octopus now has tentacles outside and inside the cell, spawning splint cells, who are now possibly some sort of agent of crime. For after the rights of the youth have been trampled long enough, they are eventually let out of jail due to no real evidence there to hold them; they then return to their communities demoralized, disenchanted, disrespected and disenfranchised.

Labourites and those happy for the SOE... applaud the locking away of innocent young men from “those places” in despicable conditions for long periods as a necessary evil. Of course that’s fine, after all, REMEMBER... it’s not OUR sons, brothers or friends. And if that act makes the youths mistrust the Police and later become criminals, then it’s no one’s fault; they would have become that way anyway.

Our history of bad-man policing goes all the way back to Batman & Robin, to Joe Williams, to Laing, to Bigga Fords, to Trinity, to Adams; and our history of strong handed policing has included Echo Squad (1976), Ranger Squad (1980), Eradication Squad (1980), Area Four Task Force (1986), Operation Ardent (1992), ACID (1993), Operation Justice (1995), Operation Dovetail (1997), Operation Intrepid (1999), Operation Kingfish (2004). With all these bad men police and all these heavy handed operations, our crime rate has never fallen significantly, or never stayed fallen.

In recent times, more municipalities across the world have been choosing to place greater emphasis on police-community partnerships and the co-production of safety, which necessitates a strong focus on equity, transparency, accountability, shared information, and changes in how police are trained, evaluated and promoted. Local policing however, is rarely regulated in the same way or under any real scrutiny. Local police have wide discretion to implement various policing tactics without seeking written permissions or public input or following officially-adopted protocol. Essentially, the local police in Jamaica are entrusted to maintain public safety by enforcing laws broadly and by statute at their discretion, but there is no imperative or incentive to employ community policing individually as a tactic or broadly as institution wide mandate.

A local police Superintendent or the Commissioner, for example, may institute a zero-tolerance “tough on crime” approach to policing, or, conversely, a community-oriented “boots on the ground, feet on the beat” strategy to leverage the power of residents to fight crime. How the police operate is mostly at he behest of the heads of the institution or at their own discretion. The ‘zero tolerance’ and ‘tough on crime’ measures are in my eyes and I suspect much of the public, is a total failures. “They’ve created a symbolic criminal law system, a criminal law system that tricks citizens into thinking that with strong penalties we
solve the problem or even deter criminals.

The law enforcement officers, "Babylon" as they are known in the street... have been the face of oppression for far too many years, and now that link is embedded in the minds of fellow citizens. In the past, the laws adopted by our society have required police officers to perform many unpalatable tasks, such as ensuring legalized discrimination and ‘classism’ or even denying the basic human rights to many fellow Jamaicans as was the will of our governments. The government need to give the police force a listening ear or court a situation where the entire nation and the police force is opposed to the government of the day, which could precipitate social upheaval or even coups. If indeed the Government had the JCF as a priority, it should not be the case that force's members have to purchase their own uniforms and work under poor conditions for long hours without reasonable remuneration.

As a citizen, journalist and communicator I see the mistrust between many communities and the police and then the growing gap between the government and the police. On speaking with an officer, I realized there is so much about the logistics of policing and its daily operations that aren’t optimized, streamlined or efficient, that it is clear a real operational appraisal needs to take place in the force, then the government needs to come to that table and be forcefully updated.

There are gaps to bridge and connect within many segments of our communities and society. The first step to bridging the gap is for the police to acknowledge and apologize for the actions of the past and the role that their institution has played in our society’s historical mistreatment of poorer communities. After that is the ironing out internal procedures, modus operandi and ethos. Enforcement is part of the core of true policing, however harm reduction, sustaining healthy communities and working with youth lie at the heart of the true task of policing. We, both the public and police must seek to co-produce safety within the community and eventually the nation.

We fear speaking up against injustices and abrogation of powers, especially those that are unleashed by States of Emergency and now the Disaster Risk Management Act (#DRMA) even though these things are wrong. Instead we say "it will all work out”; as if by some magical means the right result will occur. We continue to believe change is “just around the corner” and so plan for a country with less crime. This vain plan is based on the strategy of hope, bereft of a detailed needs analysis and a solid plan of action. We “know” that the next leader from the other party (or maybe even from the same party) will be different and will be the one to “save us”. We continue to wait on the messiah, like waiting for Godot. Yet what type of leaders do we keep getting and our political parties keep producing.

Well... Jamaica's political parties have a well documented history of gang/individual gangster alignment & of patronage and enforcers giving rise to the earliest armed gangs. 

• Spanglers - PNP connection
• Shower Posse - JLP connection
• Clans - PNP connection
• One Order - JLP connection…
  

So from bad man policing to bad man linking with politicians, you realize the badness “tun up” in Jamaica. We fully bad as they say in the streets and this maybe at the crux of our problem a culture of badness and badmindedness.

A badness so pervasive that our political leaders are in wikileaked documents on corruption lists and have revoked visas etc. It is this tyrannical, bully mind and bad mind that cannot fathom real social intervention and will make no time for it and won’t have any gusto to give social intervention a thrust and some umph! However if there is no economic aid that truly benefits communities… crime will continue mutating in brooding and breeding ground of badness and badmind. The youth are seeking out new routes to financial power. Some have begun to become mini militias willing to do the Ocean’s 11 style money heists or act out a Jamaican Netflix series. 

So after all this legal violence and brute force… with little or no social intervention what comes next… what will fill the current socio-economic void? For the economy is tightening again and that is why we see more and more radical robberies and killings. Let us not pretend the issues aren't real… time to stop acting like Jamaica is a happy camp. The government needs to fix our access to the economy and fix the education system or the rebellions will occur and crime will continue to fester and one day the mob will be at Fort Holness with stakes and pitchforks. The maddening crowd, feverish and sickened by the festering badness that is Jamaica’s true epidemic.

What is necessary now is an "Agreement for the Democratic Security". My greatest concern is the decomposition of the political forces, the increase in institutional violence and desperate resorting to SOEs endlessly, the increase of bad police practices, corruption expressed through acts like collecting money, or freed zones or spaces politicians turn a blind eye to that allow the committing of crimes and many other expressions of crime. We must create a new social paradigm and ethos which is to have a more wide-open approach to solving security problems that is not focused solely on the criminal law functions of police, courts, penitentiaries, and law enforcement, which usually play an active role after the fact and event. We need instead to work on the origins, causes, and the whole aetiology of violence in our nation.

All of these activities unavoidably deal with human nature, with individual victims and their families and communities, with deeply-rooted power structures, with vested interests, with anger, frustration, mistrust, disappointment, and fear. Change will require new data, but also new levels of empathy. To bring all the stakeholders (local politicians, the citizenry and police) together and balance their interests in a process of democratic engagement will not be a simple task. The right questions have to be asked about the means and ends of policing. Are any means justifiable to reduce crime? What are the costs and benefits of
different policing tactics? With evidence-based answers, legislation can guide the design of policing processes and set the parameters for rules. Rules and protocol can then be established to guide the administration of police departments. Meaningful public involvement throughout the process can provide legitimacy for new and revised policies, laws, and actions. Furthermore, this may allow us to generate a model of community policing, which is a model of police organization that goes beyond the needs of a political regime. This model goes directly to fulfill the needs of citizens. I rest my case.

About the author: Yannick Nesta Pessoa B.A. is Jamaica’s first blogger, a Social Advocate, Community Activist and Legal Student.  Follow on Twitter & Instagram @yahnyk. Follow on Youtube @ and Reply to yannickpessoa@gmail.com

 

Mobay Floods and the Pathway Pastor!

As the saga of Kevin Smith unravels the Mobay floods of recent times spooked the citizenry!

Jovexx

Can a mere singer/songwriter draw in and concentrate the kind of emotional power that without warning stop a community, in the midst of whatever it is doing and stop old women on the way to church, stop a hairdresser in her shop, stop the young crocs and the killy in their tracks, turn young potential gun men into drummers, let a con man for a day become his better self, stop the prostitute about her business, make other singers and deejays afraid  -- with powerful vocals, soul and genuine lyrics from the heart? Believe you me, I know one such artist and as the title suggests… his name is Jovexx or as his mother knows him Jovian Jackson. You may have already started hearing some of his songs on the radio, maybe you are an early adopter from facebook or instagram, one thing however is certain, you will know Jovexx, he will be a household name in Jamaica, and amongst the pantheon of Montego Bay’s major icons, Queen Ifrica, Tommy Lee Sparta and Jah Cure.

Do pop music lyrics matter? Do reggae and dancehall lyrics matter? Should culture-watchers and pop vulture be giving them the kind of rigorous, deconstructive attention now reserved for the high arts, great literature and an occasional movie? Most of the activists in the street I know believe that these songs and the words in them matter immensely. Cultural analysts should not be left behind. If movies are now our novels, then reggae and dancehall music lyrics may be the closest thing we have nowadays to a mass-marketed poetry, shaping attitudes and emotions for an audience that is, to say the least, extensive.

So when you hear lyrics like “mi agree seh life too hard but mi nah sell mi soul fi nuh round of applause, many live them life in the fast lane, but mama seh it never too late fi Jah Jah fall rain, so mi jus agwaan wait mi turn, time is the key the more you live the more you learn, a just the life weh we live, thanks we a give” or this verse from another song… “we keep holding on, all when the storm and the pressure is on, mi draw fi mi Bible and chant a Psalm,  and when one door close mi carry on, oil and powder them set fi man, the most always kept mi strong, them seh mi nah go mek it but them is wrong, a just my time me waiting pon”

His songs are melodic and filled with bluesy voice and his carefully wrought tales of characters in contemporary Jamaica, that the average person who seeks meaning in the face of society’s evils and havoc can readily identify with. When Jovexx belts a line like “mi nuh sorry mi live a garrison, mi never sorry the way mi born poor, so tell them we proud a weh we come from, ghetto yute haffi make it I sure, is like dem nuh see it seh we a human being, nuffa we pain dem ignore…” I have seen men and women eyes well up with tears.

The way I view this Artiste, it is as though he is a bridge between the Seventies folk and cultural movement and the more socially conscious folk and arts musical revival of the today which Chronixx and Protoje are hailed for. Jovexx's strong convictions, which are relayed in the lyrics to every song in catalogue paint a vivid picture of the struggles that young people, particularly those in Montego Bay, are experiencing now. His message resonated so strongly that he has already amassed a wide following. Jovexx’s stunningly captivating voice is front and center. Whether his lyrics are hopeful or chilling (often both within a single song), this material has a depth and substance well beyond his years. I know this for a fact not hype or fluff talk.

I have known Jovexx since 2014, I met him while assisting another artiste with his career. On our way from a video shoot in Lucea I got into his vehicle. On the way back to MoBay, someone played a riddim in the car, but he started Singjaying a song that sounded beautiful, so I asked him to sing it again, but he said “Rasta, if you never ketch it pon you phone it lost in the wind, caah mi just a mek up supm and gallang pon the riddim and right now mi a drive and mi frass so them lyrics nah come back again!” And I have watched enough Documentaries on true genius and been blessed to have rolled with a few, to know when I am in the presence of it. Plus I’d like to believe the genius in myself recognizes it in another. But as fate would have it, being the way I am, I never wanted to run in on someone else bandwagon. Plus rolling with artistes was proving a little unrewarding since the artiste was rolling with at the time would rather by gunmen 20,000 hennessy at the parties than pay for his bio or help getting a known director from Kingston to shoot his video, nagging industry friends in high places to get him on Morning Time etc etc etc.

But as fate would have it. One Friday morning March 2016, I come down the road in Paradise just in time to see Jovexx stepping out of his car as Stumpy urged him forward, “come in mi artiste, buy wi a liquor and sing song fi mi caah yuh haffi buss, a you alone mek me eye full a water and goosebump tek mi… come in come in” That morning when I asked about the music he was lukewarm as in unsure of where it was going for him. Anyway under the influence of Stumpy he belted out quite a few songs, there was a magic in that moment and I was glad I remember to take out my phone and press the red dot on the video camera… I left the road roughly 12 midday, posted the video of the four songs… when returned in the evening there was more than a million views on Facebook, women and men messaging me from California, New Orleans,England, Italy, producers from Kingston, Twins of Twins, my inbox was more than I could navigate.

Now this is not a promo piece, nobody asked me to write this, I am writing this because too many time great artistes come from Montego Bay and maybe the local papers missed them early or they waited for media in Kingston to validate them as artistes of substance, no not this time… The Mirror and Montego Bay needs to validate our own first, so before you read about him in The Gleaner or the Star or Rolling Stones Magazine, remember, you saw it first in your town, your newspaper, your own legend in the making… Jovexx, go check him on Youtube… from singing on the streets in Paradise to global studios, don’t be the last to know.

The MoBay Underground Arts Movement

“We live in cities you'll never see onscreen, Not very pretty, but we sure know how to run things, Livin' in ruins of a palace within my dreams, And you know we're on each other's team”
Lorde: Team

“Don't you think that it's boring how people talk, Making smart with their words again, well I'm bored, Because I'm doing this for the thrill of it, killin' it… It's a new art form showing people how little we care (yeah), We're so happy, even when we're smilin' out of fear”
Lorde: Tennis Court

I know the word underground cued you in to this article! So you wanna know what is “the underground”? Well it is the cutting-edge output of writers, musicians and artists linked to together by the zeitgeist (spirit of the times) of Montego Bay today and operate more or less outside the margins of what mainstream artsin Montego Bay and Jamaica has come to be known. Now during the last century, the vast majority of music you heard and bought was controlled by a small number of companies: record labels, radio stations and other dominators of the media. So too with the art you see, it is run by a small cabal of tastemakers and custodians. Artists need them to reach the public and the public’s choice was prescribed by what these gatekeepers believed could best turn a profit or suited their inclinations. Today, however, a networked world is giving artists and audiences the tools to reject those companies forever.

The arrival of illegal filesharing on Napster  at the turn of the century changed everything: it was a collision between a new format (MP3) and a new distribution system (the internet), both of which sat outside of the control of the traditional music business. It made the first dents in the arts and culture cartel and gave the underground a hotline to a global audience for the first time. Social Media platforms learned from this and focused on doing one thing well: community (Facebook, Twitter), video (YouTube), audio (SoundCloud), sales (Bandcamp), ticketing (Songkick, Dice), self-serve distribution (TuneCore, CD Baby), alternative funding (Pledge, Patreon, Kickstarter) and so on. In time Google image searches,Deviant Art, Flickr, Instagram and Pinterest would do the same for visual art. For the last two decades, if not even longer, modern Jamaican art has been trapped in the vicious circle of pastiches and appropriations. The art world was full of neo-somethings, post-isms, and meta-artistic phenomena. Conceptual art, minimalism, the revival of the abstract, all these movements were more concerned with conditions of their own existence, self-referential and approachable only through art theory. Modern Jamaican art spoke only to a limited circle of educated people and even they are getting tired of its senselessness.

Today’s underground in Mobay is an eclectic mix and hybrid of intellectualism and energies ignorant of academic discourse and theory, immersed into our real and current everyday reality which contemporary artists ignored, naturally has become a movement attractive to many. Also, it is the only movement that emerged in the last 15 years or more that wasn’t just a revival of some other historic art traditions. What we have here is not a harkening back to Barry Watson or Claude Mckay, not a reggae revival as the artistes in Kingston have engineered but a kind of Afro-Caribbean Futurism. Furthermore, the aesthetic diversity of Mobay’s art practitioners is welcomed in the art world dominated by monochromatic canvases and empty spaces.

Music and art today are highly democratic because of its rootedness in public, communal spaces and social media spaces. The social, political aspects and critical connotations sre to be praised owing to the fact that contemporary art has lost its sense of the social surroundings. When on display at the National Gallery West has on display Art like “How to Kill a sound boy” and “We should keep her”, it seems contrary to what artists and artistes on the ground in Montego Bay Jamaica are doing. Kill a sound boy seems an assault on the musical artist and begs question of sexuality. While a piece that would suggest we have kept the Queen, seems a slap in the face to all the street poets and artists that believe in our ability to govern our own destiny and chart an Afro-Carribean future. It would seem a reneging on the zeal of our predecessors.

“The mass media and mainstream are too expensive and soul sucking for the underground artist. Renting a gallery for exhibition isn’t cheap. There are too many compromises. Too many people telling you how you should be doing things.” Hence, the greatest painters and musicians and poets are rarely on TV as to be invisible, never ever in daily newspapers, and not even in the same universe as advertisers.

Montego Bay’s Underground art is emerging as rebellious owing simply to its exclusion, so expect it be connected to subculture lifestyles, hostile toward art institutions, with anti-capitalist, social and political undertones. The flowering of Montegonian underground art is strongly dependent on the communities and local reception. It originates on a neighborhood and community level, addressing local issues and communicating messages in-situ. Globally, urban art like no other movement in recent art history gained praise and recognition everywhere and the most intriguing thing about it is that it was equally appreciated by the large art loving audience, elite collectors, and art professionals. It is a puzzling fact then it is left behind as Montego Bay presents itself to the world?

About the author: Yannick Nesta Pessoa B.A. is Jamaica’s first blogger, a Community Activist and Law Student. Follow Yannick on Twitter at @yahnyk | yannickpessoa@yahoo.com

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!

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

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

A Concise History of the People's Arcade

Entrance of The People's Arcade

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

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

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

MoBay's Black Wall Street

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

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


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





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

Kitchen of Axum Veggie Cafe

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

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

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

Local Barber Shop!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.