The Cup of Life!

The Montegonian Proposal

The C.U.P. of Life

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

Matthew 26:39

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

Psalms 23

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

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

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

Kahlil Gibran

 “At the third cup, wine drinks the man”

 Hokekyo Sho

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

An Argument for Community Development

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

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

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

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

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

CUP: The Macro Plan

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

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

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

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

CUP: The Micro Approach

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

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

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

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

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

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

yannickpessoa@yahoo.com

Top 20 Schools List: Mt. Alvernia vs Mobay High!

The List of top 20 schools in Jamaica is officially out it seems and the figures are quite intriguing to say the least...

Hmmm Mt. Alvernia surpasses Mobay High... Historic if not monumental...

Well as back-to-school time rolls around... one thing I am certain of is this... Mt. Alvernia girls gonna be walking this September with an academic swagg like no other...

Mrs. Cherian will undoubtedly be beaming!!!

Only Westwood from made it into the top 10 from the west, which has shook up teachers and academics out west, for as much as Westwood has a long track record of success, it is still overlooked.

This list has spark the expected Facebook comment and thread wars of MBH vs MHS, Barbra Grayhounds vs Sister White Fowls as youth in my times referred to it.

Hats off to Mt. Alvernia... 'cause I remember back in the day when youths at Cornwall had it that Alvernia a fi dunce or screbbeh screbbeh girls and Mobay High is where you go hunting for high calibre... but as a young gallis... I never prescribed to such a philosophy or doctrine... I and I seek and finds the brightest and the hottest any where dem deh! Also... mi 'member when mi walk over the hill and pass Alvernia in the mornings and all those voices a mystery to me Yannick! Yannick! Yannick... man a Alvernia fuss tun mi inna mega star so... big up Alvernia a thousand times!

But one has to ask... what of Cornwall College... Bastion by the Sea! Disce Aut Discede!

Errol Watts of the "Cornwall College Alumni" FaceBook page posited the following arguments in Cornwall's defense for not being on the list...

"Notwithstanding the fact that CC has to continue to strive for excellence at all times, there are extraneous circumstances that might have been overlooked when analyzing the results. For example, CC does not hold-back any students from sitting the exams; while, other schools are known to submit only their best students that they think will have a chance to pass. We have an 85% (CSEC), and 93% (CAPE) average. We have one of, if not, the largest 6th Form Student Body in the country (130). And, to get into our 6th Form, you need to have 6 passes in grades 1, and 2. You might have noticed that the results offered, included English and Maths; however, we have one of (if not ) the best Physics, and Chemistry programs in the country. We have 30 distinctions at unit 1 and 2, including 50% in Physics and Chemistry. Presently, 15 out of the 138 students enrolled in Medicine at UWI, are from CC, the highest from one school in Jamaica. This year, we have 190 students applying to attend our 6th Form, which has a capacity for approx. 130. Finally, the number one student overall in the country,for the recent grade 6 achievement test, Mark Brown, and the top student from the county of Cornwall, Devin McIntosh, will be attending CC. Yes, we need to improve our English and Maths scores, but all is not lost. SATIS VERBORUM! CC...CC...CC!"

Well he has a point about Cornwall's academic past and current successes... but one has to ask... If Cornwall's admin is running away nobody and not regulating the exam sitting process and everybody sit exam etc... then Disce Aut Discede is a farce... "Learn or Leave" becomes a myth!

Aaaaaaaaaaanywaaaaayzzzzzzz...

As the back-to-school debacle begins, parents and children will no doubt begin the battle of the brands... kids want Clarks and Jansports... straight, close fitted khaki pants vs tailor made or home made and no name bought at Bashco or Market shoes etc etc etc...

I wonder what the literature syllabus is like now for 7th graders/1st formers... aah the good old days of Sprat Morrison!

Montegonian's Take on Tappa Issue!

The Montegonians Take on the Tappa Issue!

Burrel must go..., that Old Big Belly Barrel must roll, not Tappa's head. Like Jack Warner... and di whole a di FIFA old boy's fraternity, JFF is a dinosaur... proned to chronic and systemic problems which hamper the Reggae Boys more than coaching inability.

Where was tuffy? Whose ideology is it to use bare foreign ballers? Why do local coaches still get paid less than foreign ones? Why are we still imitating Brazilian football, when Spain and the Germanic countirs are on top and playing a better calibre of ball?

Aye Captain stop chat BS before mi bun down di bakery... as Tappa neighbour/or just member of the same community... Paradise/Norwood a dat me a seh!

We nah seh Theodore perfect but come on man... stop look fi scapegoat... go tek JFF problems to Azazel.

Mobay have Tappa headback covered on this one...

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

Are We Independent? Montegonian Exclusive

AFTER 50 years, we have not really released our vestiges of the Crown in England. Granted, Mrs Simpson Miller has made the gesture towards a break with the Crown, but I cannot help but feel it is just political talk, pandering to the public. We still have a representative of the Queen as an influential part of the state, the governor general. We still have British ceremonials in Parliament, we still have appeals to the British courts. We are a part of their Commonwealth, we still have the remnants of their laws. Are we really independent of England?

After our recent return to the International Monetary Fund and our leaders begging on a world tour, are we financially independent? Our money is printed in mints in England and is backed by debt and United States dollars, which is losing its footing as world currency. How can one really say we are independent? What are we celebrating this 50th anniversary?

How are we independent when we are slaves to the foreign media, especially the 'mighty' Uncle Sam? We are dependent on imports from the USA; we depend on their food, their clothes, even their entertainment.

How are we independent when we subscribe to the neoliberalist policies of globalisation that insist on lessening the powers and sovereignty of the state, and the continuous breakdown of international barriers? How are we independent when foreigners own our electrical supplies, our airports, our mining plants? What are we independent of?

Bound by handcuffs

Are we not bound by so many handcuffs of ever-growing poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, crime, men-women inequality, limited technology and, worst of all, which result in other bounding forces too - corruption?

In the word of Kahlil Gibran ... "Pity the nation that wears a cloth it does not weave, eats a bread it does not harvest, and drinks a wine that flows not from its own wine press. Pity the nation that acclaims the bully as hero, and that deems the glittering conqueror bountiful. Pity the nation that raises not its voice save when it walks in a funeral, boasts not except among its ruins, and will rebel not save when its neck is laid between the sword and the block. Pity the nation whose statesman is a fox, whose philosopher is a juggler, and whose art is the art of patching and mimicking. Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpeting, and farewells him with hooting, only to welcome another with trumpeting again. Pity the nation divided into fragments, each fragment deeming itself a nation."

Yannick Pessoa
YannickPessoa@yahoo.com

Montegonian Editorial Exclusive: POLITICIANS CRIMINALISING JAMAICANS

The atrophy of socialism, social welfare, the welfare state and the growth of the penal state represent a double criminalization of poverty. Criminalising Survival, Vending, Hustling, Small Businesses, Corner Shops, Street Life Street People Street Hustling... Street children might not be securely lodged in the life-patterns that the middle class impose on young people, but their reward from trying to maintain a minimum standard of living that their parents and governments are unable to provide them is infinitely preferable to living in the absolute poverty that surrounds them, yet police and state will incarcerate them... in juvenile centres and later on in life in BIG PRISON... We know there is a Marginalised Black male, A lack of opportunity, a lack of education, a lack of funds and lack of land and access to it. We born in Jamaica and then they say you are a squatter, "wah mi supposed to do, born and float above the ground, since me cannot get any plot of land via birth right. rent an existence forever"

The government needs to stop seeing the people as a mass of cattle for culling taxes and revenue! The poor appear to be just another commodity, good, product... to be speculated, traded and profited from by the gang of bankers and political cronies

This folly continues by using a stance on Weed and drugs as an excuse to systematically incarcerate even non-violent youth. Black religious expression and such is facing serious repression. while court houses and tax office are cash collectors. They take much and give us so little.

The transition from welfare to taxfare and the proliferation of young bodies behind bars taken together work to marginalize Jamaica's black poor population, with an economy forcing them out of Jobs and no public aid, on the one side, and holding them under lock, on the other, and eventually pushing them into the peripheral [and deeply precarious] sectors of the labor market and farther on the road to poverty

We don't live in a direct or indirect democracy, in reality. We live in a police state, controlled by oligarchic forces, a two head serpent. The heads of state lack the will to HELP people out of poverty. instead we have generation that go from Cradle to Prison...

 This country is based on slavery and land grabs by a small plantocrasy. Had they been decent people, to begin with this plantation class would have asked for permission to share this land with the Tainos and or Arawaks. Instead, through force and genocide they took the land and resources and divided them up, as they did again after emancipendence, when they divided the land and this country among the descendants of slave masters and the indentured labourers and buffer classes, just as we do now by letting the wealthy determine the laws and by making slaves of the have-nots, through debt and financial slavery and usury.

If Jamaica is ever to be fixed... land reform, education reform, energy reform, economic  and spiritual reform are now absolutely necessary!

https://www.facebook.com/notes/the-montegonian/montegonian-exclusive-politicians-criminalising-jamaicans/569974083035507?comment_id=6896269&offset=0&total_comments=2

Quote of the day

“The future is not a result of choices among alternative paths offered by the present, but a place that is created--created first in the mind and will, created next in activity. The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating.”