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

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

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

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

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

NO WAR IN SYRIA: AMERICA IS A HYPOCRITE!

I wonder! How is it that Washington plans to go to war, yet it doesn't have the legal authority for a military intervention in Syria and it lacks the moral authority! Why? Because the U.S.A. has a government with a history of using chemical weapons against innocent people far more horrific and deadly than the mere accusations Assad is dealing with from a warmongering Western military-industrial complex, hell bent on war.

(Watch This Documentary: War Made Easy)

Americans and much of the world is not in the mood for war, as the British parliament has shown the last shred of democracy and stayed the hand of its Prime Minister, and polls suggest that some 63% of the US population is against a Syrian offensive. The UN has carried no solid proof, China and Russia oppose the move? Israel has nukes and has signed no treaty yet they are not bullied by Uncle Sam. Hilary Clinton has been quoted on TV and Newspapers as saying the US and Al Qaeda are on the same side in Syria. So it can be argued America supports terrorists. Hilary Clinton then lapsed and admitted America is waging and losing and information war. With that in mind check out Noam Chomsky's  book MANUFACTURING CONSENT. Chomsky is a noted intellectual and academic, a linguist in america who has present copious evidence to prove America is nefarious and sinister in its intentions and operations, particularly the industrial war complex. 

I and I chant Rastafari, I am definitely not a Christian, but I would like to quote Jesus to Christian nations, and ask, "Who among you has not sinned?" Yes, undoubtedly chemical weapons were used in Syria. Maybe it was the government; maybe it was the opposition; maybe no one knows for sure. But here's what I know for sure: America is no better... they have used chemical weapons on there own children... and ours... for decades! The chemical weapons used in U.S. Farming to wage a war on pests, weeds, and the greedy need for ever greater yields. While the effects of these "legal" chemical agents may not be immediate or direct, they are no less hazardous. Yet our mainstream media in Jamaica, in the region and otherwise fail to highlight these chemical dangers to our own food systems, nor are they willing to acknowledge the hypocrisy of Obama and Washington's Chemical Weapons Argument and stop the perpetuation of American propaganda politics and media blitzkrieg. In fact, the media locally and abroad encouraged it. As The Montegonian, a freelance journalist I am supremely disappointed in the profession.

How do Obama and the USA find any moral authority when a list of 10 chemical weapons attacks carried out by the U.S. government or its allies against civilians, can easily be produced, they are as follows:

1. The U.S. Military Dumped 20 Million Gallons of Chemicals on Vietnam from 1962 - 1971
   
   During the Vietnam War, the U.S. military sprayed 20 million gallons of chemicals, including the very toxic Agent Orange, on the forests and farmlands of Vietnam and neighboring countries, deliberately destroying food supplies, shattering the jungle ecology, and ravaging the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent people. In 2012, the Red Cross estimated that one million people in Vietnam have disabilities or health problems related to Agent Orange.
   
2. Israel Attacked Palestinian Civilians with White Phosphorus in 2008 - 2009
   
   White phosphorus is a horrific incendiary chemical weapon that melts human flesh right down to the bone.  An Amnesty International team claimed to find "indisputable evidence of the widespread use of white phosphorus" as a weapon in densely-populated civilian areas. The Israeli military denied the allegations at first, but eventually admitted they were true.
   
3. Washington Attacked Iraqi Civilians with White Phosphorus in 2004
   
   In 2004, journalists embedded with the U.S. military in Iraq began reporting the use of white phosphorus in Fallujah against Iraqi insurgents. At the time, Italian television broadcaster RAI aired a documentary entitled, "Fallujah, The Hidden Massacre," including grim video footage and photographs, as well as eyewitness interviews with Fallujah residents and U.S. soldiers revealing how the U.S. government indiscriminately rained white chemical fire down on the Iraqi city and melted women and children to death.
   
4. The CIA Aided Saddam Hussein Massacre of Iranians and Kurds with Chemical Weapons in 1988
   
   CIA archived documents now prove that Washington knew Saddam Hussein was using chemical weapons (including sarin, nerve gas, and mustard gas) in the Iran-Iraq War, yet continued to pour intelligence into the hands of the Iraqi military, informing Hussein of Iranian troop movements while knowing that he would be using the information to launch chemical attacks which hit a Kurdish village occupied by Iranian troops with multiple chemical agents, murdering as many as 5,000 people and injuring as many as 10,000 more, most of them civilians. Thousands more died in the following years from complications, diseases, and birth defects.
   
5. The U.S. Army Tested Chemicals on Residents of Poor, Black St. Louis Neighborhoods in The 1950s
   
   In the early 1950s, the Army set up motorized blowers on top of residential high-rises in low-income, mostly black St. Louis neighborhoods, including areas where as much as 70% of the residents were children under 12. The government told residents that it was experimenting with a smokescreen to protect the city from Russian attacks, but it was actually pumping the air full of hundreds of pounds of finely powdered zinc cadmium sulfide. The government admits that there was a second ingredient in the chemical powder, but whether or not that ingredient was radioactive remains classified. 
   
6. U.S. Police Fired Tear Gas at Occupy Protesters in 2011
   
   The savage violence of the police against Occupy protesters in 2011 was well documented, andincluded the use of tear gas and other chemical irritants. Tear gas is prohibited for use against enemy soldiers in battle by the Chemical Weapons Convention. So civilian protesters in U.S. are not given the same courtesy and protection that international law requires for enemy soldiers on a battlefield?
7. The FBI Attacked Men, Women, and Children With Tear Gas in Waco in 1993
   
   At the now infamous Waco siege of a community of Seventh Day Adventists, the FBI pumped tear gas into buildings knowing that women, children, and babies were inside. The tear gas was highly flammable and ignited, engulfing the buildings in flames and killing 49 men and women, and 27 children, including babies and toddlers.
   
8. The U.S. Military Littered Iraq with Toxic Depleted Uranium in 2003
   
   In Iraq, the U.S. military has littered the environment with thousands of tons of munitions made from depleted uranium, a toxic and radioactive nuclear waste product. As a result, more than half of babies born in Fallujah from 2007 - 2010 were born with birth defects. Christopher Busby of the Scientific Secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk, described Fallujah as having, "the highest rate of genetic damage in any population ever studied."
   
9. The U.S. Military Killed Hundreds of Thousands of Japanese Civilians with Napalm from 1944 - 1945
   
   Napalm is a sticky and highly flammable gel which has been used as a weapon of terror by the U.S. military. In 1980, the UN declared the use of napalm on swaths of civilian population a war crime. That's exactly what the U.S. military did in World War II, dropping enough napalm in one bombing raid on Tokyo to burn 100,000 people to death, injure a million more, and leave a million without homes in the single deadliest air raid of World War II.
   
10. The U.S. Government Dropped Nuclear Bombs on Two Japanese Cities in 1945
    
    Although nuclear bombs may not be considered chemical weapons, they certainly disperse a lot of deadly radioactive chemicals. They are every bit as horrifying as chemical weapons if not more, and by their very nature, suitable for only one purpose: wiping out an entire city full of civilians. It seems contrite and hypocritical that the only regime to ever use one of these weapons of terror on other human beings has busied itself with the pretense of keeping the world safe from dangerous weapons in the hands of dangerous governments.

Bearing Americas Chemical HISTORY in mind, then look at Chemical companies like Syngenta, Monsanto, Dow, DuPont, Bayer Crops Sciences, and others who go about poisoning children and the environment all over the world with Obama's support. Obama who received the Nobel Peace Prize contemplates another war, after he sanctioned depleted uranium in Libya. 

Syria and its refugees definitely are in dire straits and urgent need of the World's help, not America's help, THE WORLD'S HELP. And I am certain that a violent military strike won't provide the results you are looking for. Children the world over and in Syria deserve the chance to grow up free from chemical contamination and warfare. 

Sounding the War Trumpet... Hmm that is a well-worn tactic, road, trod, tradition that is littered with the bodies of children and soldiers, civilians and suicides, military and nonmilitary. It is a classic thought, where ego and history seemingly say a president must travel as some sort of rite of honor. It's also a path that leads to more grief, grudges and grievances, bitterness, more angst and anger, endless tragedy and infinite sorrow.

It is a decision that credits an old, outdated worldview that will try to justify the logic that, "any attack, any war is worth winning... even though there is no such thing as winning." Each war "won" sows the seeds of sorrow for only future wars will be reaped. Each attack leads to a counterattack. Each "win" sets the stage for which future generations of terrorists can perform some new horror: in the frail minds of children who have lost parents and homes, in the spirits of person, some of whom have felt betrayed by their governments, leaders and their neighbors, and in the wounded bodies and hearts that shall forever fester with hate.

I am no pacifist as such but at the stage of mankind's conscious evolution, we cannot envision a better solution, in an age where we roam Mars remotely and survey the moon as hobby, we cannot imagine a world without war, where America does not need to be a bully. It is time we took the less beaten path. For the future of humanity collectively,There's no clear map, but the rewards of the journey are much greater. It's the road of heroes like Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela.  And many others whose names have been lost to history and the many more whose name echo on. These are people who were able to effect change by speaking the truth from the heart and refusing to engage in more violence. And through them, not only has change happened, but now is a time on Earth when the human spirits of the whole world, the anima mundi have to be lifted, our collective consciousness must be raised. This is the only beacons of inspiration left for mankind!

The Sly Hypocrisy of the Homosexual Agenda: Making Dwayne Jones into a Martyr

Now when the international press comes feasting for a story in Montego Bay and on Montegonians, I and I as The Montegonian have to chant. The story is that of the Gully Queen, whose real name is Dwayne Jones. He was a trans-gendered individual who died because of deception, yet his murder is being portrayed as a hate crime and is a stereotyping of Jamaica's attitude towards homosexuality. He is the new poster boy of all anti-Jamaica and gay lobby groups. However once again, the homosexual bias has "reared" its ugly head. With the recent KGN Squatter issue, they made it a gay issue.

You probably won't see this Blog or article being mentioned on the Huffingtonpost or Global Voices... owing to the fact that to be cool and savvy in today's Web 2.0, 3.0 world of social networks and personal brand identities, one has to stay politically correct to gain popularity, climb through the mystery of S.E.O. ranking schema, matrices and algorithms, one has to be espousing "progressive" neo-liberal, globalist, capitalist, "forward thinking views" and anything that may not be PRO-homosexuality is usually maligned as backward and antiquated. I have spoken to this homosexual hypocrisy already. If one is not saying yeah for gay... you will be shut up and shut off as homophobic.

Certain realities fail to be addressed by foreign media and local when examining the Dwayne Jones case... it can very well be contended, that the man's crime was not truly cross dressing. The most articles only look at a part of the issue. The young man was not murdered because he was gay or homosexual, his offense was not being a cross-dresser. He was killed because he violated the space and right of another man and other men by dancing (simulating a sex act, erotic dance: one drop) while pretending to be a woman. He made physical contact with heterosexual males, danced with them, it is alleged as one witness put it "even the selector tek a dagger offa him." I agree wholeheartedly that executing him was harsh and wrong. I never advocate for extra-judicial killings.

I will never agree to the murder of any human being for biases of sexuality, I have to wonder, has anyone given thought to the fact that persons have committed suicide after being tricked like this? That on some level that act like this are tantamount to sexual harassment? It causes arousal and stimulation by deception and physical violation.

But this small bit of truth will no doubt be shoveled and buried by the media, the spin doctors, liars and lobbyist. Huffingtonpost and Global Voices for all their citizen journalism, all the moral high ground, all the insightful commentary, they never examined once the tyranny of terror that was Bebe and Jasper and how they were the origins of scamming in Montego Bay... a pair of maniacal cross dressing gun wielding homosexual scammers, parading with "straps" and thongs from Fairview's Texaco to KFC downtown to Baywest to Pier 1. How they rooted themselves in Granville is fairly common knowledge in the city. But the darker sides of scamming money and murders, poverty and gay pedophilia in Jamaica are swept under the rug for this untruthful campaign against Jamaica and what is perceived as its attitude to homosexuality. NO ONE investigated the serious link with homosexuality and scamming.

You won't hear this from Minority Insight or Active Voice but I live in Montego Bay and I know gay women living in communities now, flouting their life and lifestyle on the corners and on Facebook now in Montego Bay from Norwood, Flankers, Salem, Canterbury, to Ironshore, Westgate Hills, Spring Farm and Bogue, chilling on corners without harm. Yet I see no interview with them, no expose asking them how they navigate their existence so peacefully. Or what are the rigors of the Homosexual condition in Jamaica, outside of the iconic misrepresentation from the likes of Stacy Chinn.

Forward to the issue of what Dwayne Jones really did again. Let us make it clear... He aroused males by dancing with them and not letting them know he was a male. A woman spotted him out. Now I have even heard media calls for her to be spotted out, what vile hypocrisy now to try and punish a woman for revealing the truth. Not even blinking to content that Dwayne may have been naive to even think cross dressing was cool in Jamaica, but it think it fun to violate peoples belief on the notion and practise of homosexuality by letting them unknowingly participate in a homosexual ritual.

To some males and individuals, being "played" like and played with like in such a manner is equivalent to death- socially and physical. It is my sincere belief that this young 17-year-old would still be in the land of the living had he not taken away, by deception, the right of other males to decide if he wanted to be involved in a homosexual activity and by this I mean: dancing with another man.

Gay people go about their business in Jamaica every day without being provoked. Dwayne should have kept his antics to just YouTube. This is what happens when one provokes and deceives a crowd... the metamorphosis into maddened mob.

Reggae Sumfest 2013

Reggae Sumfest...

This year, the 21st year of Reggae Sumfest will take place July 21 to 27, 2013. Dubbed The Greatest Reggae Show on Earth, the Festival is expected to again attract thousands of patrons from Jamaica and the rest of the world to Montego Bay. Music lovers from all over are invited to come to the Festival and celebrate this milestone in Jamaica's musical heritage!

Who Protects Brand Montego Bay?

Brand Montego: Part 1

The City has to Develop and Protect it's Brand

A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well. Jeff Bezos

“There is more similarity in the marketing challenge of selling a precious painting by Degas and a frosted mug of root beer than you ever thought possible.”
A. Alfred Taubman

Imagine the words Montego Bay, instantaneously it brings to mind, relaxation, coconut and palm trees, white sand beaches, sun and sometimes even sex - it's one of the most powerful images in the Caribbean. So how is it, dozens of companies use the name to sell products – Payless is notorious for selling a brand of sandals called the Montego Bay Club, there is even a foreign band full of white boys called Montego Bay Band, A Freemason pub of some sort in England with the Name Montego Bay littering the menu- so I put it to both the government and the public now, that we start considering seeking protection for Brand Montego Bay, under intellectual property, through trademark and copyright.

Freemasons Arms Pub... on the Menu Montego Bay Chicken Wrap!

We must consider that in today’s environment cities compete amongst each other for talent, business and human resources. In many ways they have to act like commercial entities by selling themselves to potential customers – business investors, visitors/tourists, the working and creative classes– as successful, vibrant, forward-looking brands. Simply put they have to market themselves as the place to be, project an image of tomorrow and betterment. At the same time that image, that name, that identity must be guarded. Just as commercial entities, have lawyers and make legal cases on issues of copyright and trademark infringement. So too must local government and even central government entities now seek to protect the Brand Montego Bay and Brands of Jamaica.

How do a group of white boys in America or is it England become the Montego Bay Band?

Intellectual property rules offer the potential to provide a valuable source of income for people in developing countries, who tend to get only a small sliver of the profits made on their goods on the international market. Do we profit from made in China T-Shirts that say Montego Bay. NOPE! Montegonians are not getting value. Their image and name is being abused. Consequently I saw a study that detail through study of Mobay and other areas, how Brand Jamaica has mostly benefited entities like Puma, whilst craft vendors and small businesses flailing in the harsh economy.

Montego Bay City must re-examine its role and function, as well as define its appeal to ‘citizens/consumers’, at the same time protecting the name and the Brand of the city for the citizens. Our city must distinguish itself from our competitors (Kingston, Portmore, Ocho Rios) and position our self as a recognizable brand in an increasingly regional and international market place. Port of Spain, San Fernando, Bridgetown, Kingstown are all Caribbean cities vying for status and international cosmopolitan appeal, so what of us in the Bay?

I noted on twitter that a few Kingstonians started noticing that “Mobay look like farrin” and that “any time mi waan go farrin mi go Fairview, Montego Bay.”

Here is an excerpt of Mobay through a foreigners eyes

“Downtown resembled a cross between America and what we would picture as rural Africa. The streets were full of activity. People yelling, laughing, buying and selling items. Playing music. Their skin was black as tar and beautiful. Their hair was the epitome of natural. They wore clothes that we would have worn in the early 2000’s but did their best to match it up.”

From instagram.com (via @RudeboyRJ) - June 3, 4:05 PM

What is the vision of Mobay, what is the vision for Montego Bay, who protects the name Montego Bay? The name Montego Bay has been already been branded and used and bandied about like there is no tomorrow, but Montegonians haven't seen the benefits.

I put it out there that Montego Bay is the biggest cultural brand in the Caribbean. When I travel abroad, Montego Bay always seems to be the more popular Jamaican destination and known location. So those companies using the Montego Bay Brand in ways that really do enhance their business, they use the name to make association with luxury, comfort, sun, breeze and such... so it's reasonable for the Montegonians to ask, Why aren't you coming to talk to us? Why aren't you asking our permission? Why don't you engage with us?

The notion of cities and cultures seeking IP protection is not an entirely new one - the Native American Navajo recently brought a case against the clothes company Urban Outfitters, for use of their name.

Relying on past glory is no longer enough; As the once den like, homely Montego Bay is now becoming a metropolis and showing a citizenry acquiring the cosmopolitan lifestyles to go with it… the friendly city is now a big city, and nowhere near as friendly as it used to be. 

Today, successful companies and young talented people have lost hometown loyalties; note the influx of outsiders and outside businesses in Mobay, not to mention the ‘Spanish Invasion’. They can choose where to cluster. Cities with distinctive characteristics; be they economic, cultural, environmental or life style, and it these things that will attract the best companies and people. So now we have questions of Montego Bay’s identity and its brand identity: What are the distinctive characteristics of Montego Bay, what makes us, US?


To Be Cont’d

On Anti-heterosexuality, Anti-hetero-pathy & Heterophobia: The Unpopular Intellectual Opinion!

As the Rowdy Gays saga continues... I have seen the gay community saying The Jamaica Observer is being vindictive, for publishing the address of where the gay men had been squatting. The media's prime objective in reporting is to answer the 5 W's who, what, WHERE, why and when. I will admit the first published article leaned on some bias as is indicated by tone and choice of words, but the writer never truly crossed any line in journalistic integrity. I don't want to seem insensitive or rude on the issue but... are we now to toby to the whims of unscrupulous gay men and wards who violate the law by squatting, by being rowdy and soliciting or eliciting media attention by attacking the media. 

I say the gay community has let prejudice, colour its judgement in hot pink, red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, indigo/blue and violet. The colors of J-flag has shrink wrapped the brains of many in our national and diaspora's intelligentsia... and to oppose the homosexual lobby is to be unpopular and court the life of a pariah.
I am pro-tolerance and never promote harm to humanity, but I disapprove of homosexuality and feel a sincere attempt to shut up, lock off, label, libel and slander any intelligent opinion that does not agree with homosexuality as antiquated, draconian, non-progressive or not with the progressive liberal agenda... dunce... outdated and overly or unnecessarily militant. Is there a polite way to just say no to homosexuality! Once you show any dissent on homosexuality you are branded ’homophobic.’ While these accusation do not fill me with indignation, I know they are an inaccurate description of what I do, who I am, or how I think.

This sudden groundswell of Anti-heterosexuality, Anti-hetero-pathy, Heterophobia, Anti-hetero-philia... would seem as if they are in the process of being consecrated into an ideology. If your straight shut up. Our have no right to free speech straight people... shut up... u can have no legitimate grouse against homosexuals! The terms “homophobic” and "homophobia" are usually used by the Gay Activists and Lobby Group to discredit and inaccurately define its critics. Once someone is branded homophobic, the chances are that he or she will be judged before they are heard, and the argument will be lost in the welter of bruised gay pride and ego.

But what do the terms “homophobic” and "homophobia" mean? Do they mean you are anti-music or Elton John or Luther Vandross? Or that you’re opposed to freedom of choice? That you don’t delight in listening to Diana King (whom I love dearly, I listen to her version of "Say a Little Prayer" ritually) or Freddie Mercury (everyone in Jamaica sings "Another one bites the dust)? That you have a quarrel with Shebada? Does it mean that you don’t admire the positive work of hundreds of thousands of possibly and notably gay persons who have contributed positively to the advance of humanity? Does it mean that you hate gay people? Truth be told it does not. One can disapprove of smoking and not hate the smoker, one can disapprove of homosexuality and not hate a homosexual and not be homophobic.

It is a conflation to try and say that every time someone disapproves of homosexuality or every act or event that went unfavorably for the homosexual community was or is based in homophobia. It is not just a conflation but borders on intellectual dishonesty. It is also most crucially a failure of the imagination. An inability to see the world in terms other than those the group mind, the institutionalized Gay Lobby, international establishment has set out. If you’re not homosexual you’re a homophobic. If you don’t love us, you hate us. If you’re
not Good, you’re Evil. If you’re not with us, you’re against us.

There is this fancy attempt by the gay community to sanitize its image by projecting only the successful productive ones amongst them and distancing and disassociating itself from the so called "screbbe screbbe" ones. So that it would appear to most that gay is taste acquired by affluence or education and open mindedness, or it would be, as it is rumored Rex Nettleford once told an ironically rowdy student, whom as the case maybe  had opted to verbally abuse him as "B---Man" to which he replied, "Yes it is an intellectual disease you'll never catch!"

If one faithfully followed common homosexual propaganda you'd think all homosexuals were artsy, cultured, tech savvy, swanky sophisticated people, soft gentile people, limp wristed folk... living high above poverty in aloof safety sipping wine and nibbling cheese smoking long cigarettes at fancy shin digs...

The homosexual PR propoganda machine is well oil, lubed even and working.

If it had been GUNMEN hiding over there... The headline would probably have read "Residents call police on gunmen squatting uptown," or "Squatting Gunmen attack reporter"... If it had been RASTAS squatting there the news would probably read "Fanatical RASTA squatters attack Journalist," So why is it because they are GAY SQUATTERS we must sshhhhhhhhhhhhhh doah seh the squatters dem gay... The only reason is that it makes GAY LOOK BAD!

Sooner or later this madness has to stop.

OBSERVER ARTICLE: Unruly Gays

Behind the music on a very popular Montegonian: Jimmy Cliff

Jimmy Cliff was born James Chambers on April's Fool's Day, 1948 in the Somerton District of St. James near Montego Bay, Jamaica. He reputedly chose the stage name Cliff to reflect the heights he intended to scale in the music business. And while he belatedly became a household name in the 1970s - in the UK thanks mainly to his appearance in The Harder They Come both as an actor and a singer - it became clear to those who followed his career that his name actually came to represent artistic, political and personal struggle, rather than easily attained commercial success. 

When he was 14 years old he moved to Kingston...

Read the full article!

My Daughter and I listen to this song every morn... she even sings it to herself... it's off his latest Grammy winning album! Another good hit is "Took the children's bread and give to the dogs!