Swizz Bankz: The Currency of Life

“… Throw your soul through every open door, Count your blessings to find what you look for, Turned my sorrow into treasured gold”
~Adele: Rolling in the Deep

“When life gives you lemons, make lemonade”
~Elbert Hubbard

Don't worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday. That is one of the truest gems of wisdom I have had guide me in life… it came from a song called wear Sunscreen by Baz Luhrman. It prepared me for life by succinctly defining the unpredictable nature and operations of this universe. It would prepare for the many unpredictable and unforeseeable events I would bear witness to. Like when my friend Swizz Bankz passed me on the way to pick breadfruit, I had no idea that by the time I went inside to scroll YouTube for another tutorial on writing  novels and short stories to watch, that when my electricity went and I heard the transformer blow, that it was Swizz Bankz that was electrocuted after his picking stick made contact with a light wire. I went from being most annoyed to most distressed when I stepped outside to see people scampering off to see what had happened only to hear “Jah know the man just leff yasso go pick breadfruit and fry out star!” And so like the song… on some idle Wednesday, it wasn’t a Tuesday real trouble that never crossed Swizz Bankz’s worried mind, blindsided him and the community.

The thing is I can’t absolutely say it didn’t cross my troubled mind. Now bare with me as I explore some kind of metaphysics hear. For a few weeks now, I have been having “recurrent” conversations on Electrocution and shock. The first being on a friend, Mike, in the community who died from electricity in a breadfruit tree only a few hours before his departure for England. Then there was Seba Dog, who we were discussing his electrocution in a tree, and I was saying to him how lucky he was that day, as I was on spot and had no idea what to do. Fortunately his son had been there to rescue him. Finally there was my name sake a breddrin named Yannick, more popularly known as Bolo, he died a year or two back in a breadfruit tree in Hanover, he came to mind and then coincidentally I saw his brother, whom I didn’t know but the resemblance was uncanny. Finally is Trevor a Far-i elder of mine, whenever he sees me his hailing style is to touch fist and shake his hand like electricity is passing between us and say CURRENT. So imagine all this metaphysics and coincidence as I examine the currency of life. The flow of energy.

Who is Swizz Bankz and how this relates to Swizz Bankz? Well he is an artiste, a solopreneur, came to Paradise a few years ago and managed to fit in well. Some poeple come to a community and make mischief, that wasn’t Bankz. He was all about trying to make music and money. When he first arrived he used to sell Cash for Gold in front of Stanley’s Patty and fund his career. He is someone I see often, at one point he and a cabal of young trying artistes used to be at my gate late into the night to shooting the breeze. As of late he had been on the front of my mind for some days now as he was always nextdoor posting to his social media pages, and trying to make money on pay per click ads etc. He had resigned from Cash for Gold after being stabbed downtown. But financially he was on shaky times. So naturally as a community minded person, I hate to see trying people struggle. So as is always I would scour my mind for opportunities I may have seen that would be up his alley. But as things are with the state of emergency, the general economy of the community has slowed down, and the more vulnerable in the community suffer for it. Aid, benefits, hand outs, odd jobs, gigs, work, activity… everything is lessened and diminished.

Hence now I am living what I having been warning the government about. The security intervention has slowed the economic life of the community and without the necessary social or socio-economic intervention to offset this labour intensive security operation that seems endless and will only cost the same taxpayers who suffer in the communities, suffer economically and socially. The SOE may have cut crime, but it has also served to exacerbate so many other social pressures. So if I must connect the dots for you. Financial Pressure dot Swizz Bankz dot Breadfruit Tree dot Electrocution dot “Pop dung hospital” CRH dot Amputation dot dot dot dot dot dot… get it!

So now forgive my anger and frustration with government when after months the community has not had a 6-a-Side competition, Swizz Bankz and some progressive minded youth were planning a 6-a-Side competition for August 11, I was helping them make the link with the Paradise CDC, to use the Pond up by Supreme Prep etc. and general event planning. So from within the community there is attempt to resuscitate economic life, yet, the efforts to match us on the part of government is found failing and wanting. Is this not an indictment? Now that tragedy is here, how much help can Swizz Bankz count on from the government?

Swizz Bankz to you in the meantime, here is my advice:

• Cultivate positive friendships
• Stay physically active when you can
• Use humor to lighten the mood (it’s also great medicine)
• Lean on your spirituality
• Practice meditation
• Escape reality through reading or listening audio books
• Pursue a range of interests and hobbies
• Get a pet

While you do that we on the other end at Paradise are trying to gather what meagre funds we can to assist you. This tragedy struck and went straight to the heart of the community, everybody felt it and still feels it trust me. The closest of your friends shed tears youth. Now to the public I would say this in the words of the immortal Tickle Puss “No one of us is stronger than all of us!” So it is in this light I am saying I can’t assist Swizz Bankz alone in the community we have collection going if you live in the vicinity and want to do something, you can drop your donation in the pan at Tash Shop on Paradise Crescent. For the tech savvy who want to pitch in we have a fundrazr account at  http://fnd.us/a1Nut7?ref=sh_06AvEe. All and any aid appreciated. Selah!

https://store.cdbaby.com/Artist/SwizzBankz

https://twitter.com/Swizzbankzmusic

https://www.instagram.com/swizzbankzmusic/

https://www.facebook.com/TrapCityMusiq/ 

https://www.reverbnation.com/swizzbankz

 

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

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

The Economic Fringe

"Outrageous behavior, also known as the lunatic fringe, is the seed bed of innovation and creativity."
~Joel Salatin

The other day I had the rare opportunity to speak to my councilor. Needless to say I wasn’t heartened. Instead of hearing me out, I was placated and plastered with all the JLP party had been doing, and not much listening to us about what needs to be done. He also went on to elaborate about youth and employment, which he had a rosy and glowing portrayal of the situation. However that is when dissonance crept in… what I have been seeing is not a massive employment sweep for youth but a growing trend sweeping the youth and the most vulnerable to the edge of society and to the brink of existence, a place close to poverty and a life as vagabond or vagrant. Young adults today earn half of what they would have made 20 years ago. The labor market problems of young workers are disproportionately severe; they include higher than average unemployment and relatively low earnings when employed and this does not bode well for our future.

Since the late 1970s, social science researchers, the media, private foundations, and policymakers have directed considerable attention to the labor market problems of young adults and their families. It is noted that there has been sustained drop in earnings which has especially dramatic for young adults with no postsecondary school education. Most proposed remedies have emphasized the quality of the labor supply. But improving education and training, while often worthwhile and necessary, is not by itself sufficient to raise earnings. If this downward trend, which has persisted through recession and recovery alike, is to be reversed, then policymakers and educators must address the demand side as well as the supply side. Raising young adult wages will require not only better academic performance, training, apprenticeships, and school-to-work programs, but also full-employment policies, changes in the configuration of jobs and careers, and larger young adult union membership.

ECONOMIC ADOLESCENCE

The steep downward trend in the earnings position of youngsters has lengthened the period of "economic adolescence," during which young adults are working but not earning enough to be economically self-sufficient or capable of supporting a young family. This development has, in turn, had a number of damaging consequences for young men and for society at large. Among the effects of this protracted adolescence are:

• a sharp increase in the age of first marriages;
• lengthier stays in the homes of parents;
• a rise in young single-parent families;
• reduced economic support of children;
• the increased economic attractiveness of drug sales and other illegal activities;
• the sustained rise in the numbers of young men incarcerated in jail and prison.

Tell me now you don’t know someone who meets one of these criteria… it may just be you yourself? Don’t get me wrong I do not believe that economics is destiny,though I do believe that changes in the labor market can in large part account for these wider social phenomena.

For wages to grow on a sustained basis, workers’ productivity must rise, meaning they must steadily produce more per hour, often with the help of new technology or capital. Further, workers must receive a consistent share of those productivity gains, rather than seeing their share decline. Finally, for the typical worker to see a raise, it is important that workers’ gains are spread across the income distribution. If wages are rising but the increases are all going to the best-paid workers, the typical worker doesn’t see a gain. Two of these conditions have not been met, which explains the fact that productivity has risen while the median wage has barely changed.

Assigning relative responsibility to the policies and economic forces that underlie rising inequality or declining labor share is a challenge. International trade and technological progress have played significant roles, putting downward pressure on the wages of low-skilled workers. For example, as imports from low-wage countries made inroads into the manufacturing sector, job losses in Jamaican manufacturing were substantial in some areas. At the same time, local manufacturing has learned to produce more with fewer workers. Both developments generated widely shared benefits in the form of new products and lower prices, but also led to dislocation of some workers and downward pressure on less-skilled workers’ wages.

We also know that educated workers have fared better; the wages received by those who finished their education with a four-year college degree grew. While increasing educational attainment has helped to raise wages for many workers, it remains the case that the majority of Americans have not completed a four-year degree. Hence, domestic policy choices have mattered, too, especially because they have affected workers’ bargaining power and the allocation of wages across different workers, examining the bargaining power of a Freezone worker, little to none.

It took many factors — some the result of deliberate policy choices, some the outcome of broad economic processes — to produce decades of wage stagnation for the typical worker. Similarly, it will take many incremental reforms and new policies to reestablish the conditions that support robust, broadly shared wage growth. There is no single wage growth panacea, but many policies would help, including: raising the minimum wage; increasing worker bargaining power; ensuring adequate labor demand through looser fiscal or monetary policy; increasing dynamism through pro-mobility or entrepreneurship policies; and making broad improvements to education or productivity policies. Given the longstanding trends and limited improvements in living standards for many workers, taking action to increase wage growth is one of the most important policy imperatives we face. If we don’t create solutions soon we will soon see many in our social circle continue to be pushed to the edge...

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

Barrett Town Badman Bowza Battles Battalion in the Bay

A man on the police most wanted list, was shot dead during a massive operation in St James, the parish where an Enhanced Security Measures has been imposed. Dead is Nico Samuels o/c "Bowza","Shabba” or "Brutus” of a Jenkins corner, Barrett Town address also in St James. He was shot, whilst two policemen were injured in a fierce firefight in the upscale community of Hatfield, Ironshore, Montego Bay in the parish on Saturday, April 28. He had been on the police most wanted list for a 2017 triple murder in Barrett Town, St James.

The two police officers, who were part of a team that went to apprehend the fugitive, were shot and injured during the reported shootout that lasted according to varying reports, from two to five hours, police sources have reported. One of the two policemen injured in the shooting is said to have been seriously hit. The police stated that Samuels is a former member of the dismantled “Ski Mask Gang” which operated out of Barrett Town. Samuels it is said was a member of the “Ski Mask Gang” but broke ranks after the gang leader and other gang members went to his home in Barrett Town and killed his mother minutes after they set her afire. It is also alleged that his grandmother was also shot and injured during the said incident. The Barrett Town District, Jenkins corner had been paralyzed by the terror wielded by Samuels according to residents.

Reports are that approxiamately 1:45 p.m., members of a police team, acting on information went to an apartment located in the vicinity of Sugar Mill road in Iron Shore to search for the fugitive, to effect an arrest on Samuels and another man wanted for and in connection to the 2017 triple murder.

Further reports are that upon reaching the premises, they came under heavy gunfire from two men, one of whom managed to escape in bushes. The other man who was later identified as Samuels. According to eyes witnesses Samuels entered private property, where he held persons hostage challenging the security forces in a battle of kill or be killed. He continued to fire on the police and had them pinned down for over an hour. During the confrontation, the police Corporal was shot and injured, and they had to radio for backup.

They were then joined and supported by several joint military teams who locked down the environs, circumference and perimeter of the house, however Samuels proceeded to barricaded himself inside and engage the lawmen in a gun battle that ensued for hours. Samuels was eventually fatally shot in evening and when the shooting subsided, he was found dead in a pool of blood in a room littered with clothes, two 9 mm semi-automatic pistols along with several live rounds taken from his person.

Audio recordings of intense gunfire purportedly in Hatfield have been disseminated via social media and traditional media houses Saturday evening. Photos showing what appears to be his body are being circulated on social media. There are also pictures purportedly of the house with several bullet holes and broken windows. Residents living in the communities of Barrett Town and Lilliput, are now breathing a sigh of relief as this notorious killer and some of members of his gang have now ceased, desisted or are deceased.

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Health of the City

And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
~Genesis Chapter 1 Verse 29, KJV

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”
~ Hippocrates

I am sure we all know the Health Care System has its fair share of challenges. However I hope maybe Montego Bay and Cornwall Regional Hospital can lead the shift toward a sustainable, accountable system that provides co-ordinated quality care to people, when and where they need it. I sincerely wish that this article might spark discourse between the Ministry of Health, hospital administrators, health care providers and patients to achieve a system that will last for generations. The Ministry of Health and The St. James Municipal Corporation need to seek and implement ways of rectifying St. James’ health situation post haste, the Cornwall Region Hospital and our health policies cannot continue as is.

As such our nation needs to address one of the leading risk to Jamaicans’ health and well-being – unhealthy diets. I think it horrific and ridiculous that in a country with terrible diabetes and hypertension statistics, diabetic and hypertensive patients go to hospitals and at every commissary and canteen is, high fructose corn syrup box drinks and the greasiest mono sodium glutamate (MSG) fried chicken is the sole if not primary offering. Our nation has glorified the waste of developed countries and pretend they are delicacies, like turkey neck and chicken back.  We need better dietary policies aided by taxes on junk food and subsidies to health food business and organic farmers. Also, our hospitals and clinics need to become holistic healthcare and healing centres; we need robust community clinics.

I cannot speak about healthcare in Montego Bay and St. James in any meaningful way and not speak about Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH), fumed out, short of space, short on pills and just one big engine running amok. Patients are huddled under tents and some end up sleeping there on chairs for days. Wheelchairs cobbled together from plastic veranda chairs and bicycle wheels and parts. This is not sustainable. Has anyone consulted Cuba or Cuban engineers on fixing the hospital and the fume situation, after all if street history is correct, Cubans did build CRH. And while we on Cuba, the fact that they are number one in bio technology and bio chemistry in the region (a little advertised fact), we ought to get tips on running a healthcare system. We may also need to source medication there as Cuba sells medication at lower rates than many developed or first world countries. India supplies drug and generic copies of them cheaply are we in dialogue there?

Currently the front of Cornwall Regional Hospital has one of the hottest and “crowdiest” chill spots in  Montego Bay akin to an Esso Tigermart or Texaco Starmart, snack spots full of sugar and sodium. Unhealthy diet is amongst the leading risk for death and disability in Jamaica. Childhood and maternal malnutrition was estimated to cause additional deaths in national mortality figures. While other countries have been implementing best practices to address similar challenges, Jamaica has not. Now is the time for Jamaica to catch up.

The complexity of the issue of unhealthy diets includes the following points:

• Most Jamaican diets are unhealthy because they contain too many processed and prepared foods;
• Unhealthy diets cause heart disease, stroke, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol, mental disorders and up to 40 per cent of cancers;
• Healthy local diets could boost the Jamaican economy. Research shows that replacing 10% of the top 10 fruit and vegetable imports with locally grown produce would result in an increase in national gross domestic product (GDP). 

In pursuit of a better healthcare system, I ask that the ministry keeps in mind these key goals:

1. people receiving the right care at the right time and the right place; 
2. an accountable, efficient and transparent system;
3. promoting healthier lifestyles for Jamaicans through shared responsibility across government.

Jamaican health promotion practices now need to focus on individual and public nutrition education. Educational interventions need to be supported by food environments and food systems that make healthy choices easy choices.  A mix of approaches is needed: regulatory, fiscal, voluntary, contextual and educational. Government needs to urgently invest in programs and policies for health promotion that take a food systems approach to addressing unhealthy diets including:

• Restrict the marketing of foods and beverages to children and youth;
• Develop and implement healthy food and beverage procurement policies in publicly funded and private sector settings. These institutions should procure more fresh food (locally grown wherever possible) and ensure that the food they serve is fresh, sustainable and promotes healthy eating;
• Regulate additions of sodium, free sugars, saturated fats and trans fatty acids in processing foods;
• Develop a National School Food program to ensure that all school children have healthy meals every day;
• Develop a comprehensive monitoring and surveillance program for the food supply to document the relationship between Jamaicans’ diets, their health and sustainability, as well as evaluate the effectiveness of healthy food policies.

I would also recommend the development of a national food policy. Such a policy should be comprehensive in nature and will therefore involve several ministries, including the Ministry of Agriculture which has a critical role to play. We need the ministry and all health sector stakeholders work together on a strategy for tomorrow!

The nation must move forward with a mandate to strengthen our publicly funded universal health care system, put more healthy foods on the plates of Jamaican families and ensure that society adapts to face the challenges of chronic disease and food insecurity. It is now time to improve the governance of the food system to improve the health of Jamaicans. Jamaica I know has the recipe for health, the best of them coming from Montego Bay!

 


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

The Emergence of the State

One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.
~Arnold H. Glasow

As Jamaica’s hyper-realism continues, it is most evident that the city and parish’s state of emergency is little more than a Public Relations stunt designed to abate the fears of those who don’t really live the average Jamaican’s reality.  Hyper-realism is the young art form of creating illusions by enhancing reality. As a political philosophy, it is the reliance on spectacle and well-orchestrated exploits which combine the showmanship and force in order to transcend the need for a coherent, well-articulated political agenda. I hold on to the belief that we need better policing and forensics. Instead of empowering the cries that they get rid of INDECOM. The use more brute force seems counterproductive, we need instead to seek a socio-economic solution. Now imagine the police and soldier are at a funeral in Mobay and all about the city in full force, yet it never prevented the killings, then there is the matter of this bogus hocus-pocus wanted list... tell me we don’t need better intelligence. Is the crime on the rise because of government naysayers and is it state of emergency naysayers and their ill will and negative energy that caused the blatant killing in view of Jamaica’s magnifying glass on us? Is it the naysayers and not a failure in our political imagination? For we are working and operating on the assumption that states of emergency and curfews have ever curbed crime. Show me stats that prove that. We are working based on the assumption more police and brute force will let crime relent. Show me the data to prove that.

We understand to a great degree that poverty is not the source of crime as the redistribution of wealth now seems to be. Scamming came to be seen as reparations in the eyes of some, for the social void of slavery and 400 years of free labour. Wealth which could no longer be secured in the illegal drug trade even though there is an opioid epidemic could be secured from America suckers and naive elderly folk and relocated to the marginalised black male and poor scammer. This has resulted in massive social shifts, upheaval in the social order and exponential rise in murder. But we must understand that lack of access to the economy in a sensible way is what prompted scamming. Compounded with an archaic and out of touch failing education system, confounded by the political class, this cauldron of skullduggery is bubbling and has yielded the Montego Bay we have now.

Aren't wealth, access to wealth, access to the economy economic problems, education and our culture of violence, misogyny and narcissism, aren’t they the factors and social ills that lead to miseducated, undereducated and immature boys that find illegal access to wealth and power? Boys who end up using this great power with no real sense of responsibility. Isn't that a socio-economic beast? Must these issues not be addressed. It was alleged that ZOSO would be followed up with social intervention. I can remember of none with the exception of some government official saying Mt Salem was full of prostitutes. Will the State of Emergency even actually have a socio-economic component? Does the State of Emergency stop the white collar components of crime?

At the start of the millennium Montego Bay had a moderate murder rate, what existed then was a vibrant Narco-Trafficking industry, drug mules, smuggling and airport or wharf drug busts were the news. Then came Operation Kingfish to disrupted a criminal empire and network in the bay. Drug Barons fled or were extradited. The minions who always had guns but were not involved in spontaneous gun crimes because the Dons was cashy, now had to resort to extortion, contract killing and armed robberies. In the wake of no social intervention and being left to suck salt through a wooden spoon, crime mutated. And the youth sought out new routes to financial power. So after all this police and brute force… with little or no social intervention what comes next… what will fill the coming void?

I can say however the state of emergency has cut and curbed downtown traffic, and in general, diminished the general sense of lawlessness that is so pervasive in Montego Bay; see the illegal petroleum bust. The reduction of lurkers etc., however as we have seen lawlessness and crime, especially violent crime, just aren't the same thing.

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

In Defense of INDECOM

Today we live in extraordinary times when unprecedented events keep happening that undermine the stability of our world. Scamming, youth apathy, bleaching, waves of crime and violence. This is a time and place where those in power and control seem unable to deal with the issues of the day, and no-one has any vision of a different or a better kind of future. It seems paradoxical and contrary to me that the government is unable to negotiate payment of the Police yet now, for the sake of political grandstanding, for public relations relief our Prime Minister has proposed to pay the legal expenses of Police who are under the scrutiny of INDECOM, undermining the same institution his party predecessors implemented. Simply for political expedience, human rights gains are reversed.

I can see no logic to this as 1. this position doesn't fix the economic/wage, social and psychological problems within the police system. 2.This position takes an adversarial stance to INDECOM. Positing that the agency goes "too far" with regard to police oversight. In practical terms, INDECOM is one of the few human rights steps we have taken to have a major effect in the country on the ground. 3. INDECOM is not an impediment to crime fighting. To truly fight crime we need one an accountable an effective police system. One which we know is free of corruption, one which is paid properly, trained properly. We need a system of comprehensive forensics and follow up of an investigation. The fight against crime requires a more efficient legal system and justice system, the removing of a corrupt judiciary, not more laws, but the execution and carrying out of the laws we do have with greater speed and efficiency. The work of fighting "crime" which is an intangible and nebulous thing or concept, takes substantive efforts in the spheres of education, culture and economics, not public relations fluff, not political grandstanding. Fixing the country is real work.

The police is a very old institution in this country, with a history of policing over a slave class and second class citizens. Let us not forget one of the early display of police brutality and state force in the Coral Gardens Incident of 1963. Let us not pretend that the history of the police was to use force against newly freed slaves to protect the interest of the former plantocracy and that legacy of force has morphed into a present day where the police have become apathetic with regard to doing the actual work of investigation and follow up, but would rather just shoot first and ask question later if ask any at all. I know many good police officers, some who employ community policing and social approaches, but believe me, they are far outnumbered by the epidemic of brutality and corruption that has infected the police. It is common knowledge that power corrupts, so we must now ask "who watches the watchman" another common expression. Oversight of the police is necessary and a must.

Those who decry INDECOM have forgotten the social circumstance that led to the birth of INDECOM, years of Braeton 7, Kraal Killings, Kentucky Kid, an age when there was less technology at our disposal and even less precision in law enforcement. A time when the police force was simply a BLUNT instrument when innocent lives could easily be swept up in the murder of flat-footed alleged criminals being executed on sight. A time when the good suffered at the hands of the police with the bad, when respect for the citizenry outside of "Risto-dom" was nil, when police were contemptuous of domiciles with zinc fences or board houses. When civil liberties were trampled with impunity and extrajudicial killings were protested on the news nightly. What is required today in Jamaica is a more clinical Jamaica Constabulary.

Are we to pretend all the international reports about our police and policing don't exist? Are we to pretend all the national enquiries and commissions pointing to inadequacies in our policing body and methodology don't exist? Are we to forget the brutal display of force in the May 2010 Tivoli incursion? There are not that many agencies the public can use to challenge the state administratively or constitutionally, shall we erode one of the few? Then what next, dismantle the office of The Public Defender? We cannot let fear of crime cause us, to cowardly erode our own social gains and civil liberties, we should instead rise to the challenge of doing the hard work of rooting out corruption, implementing better-policing tools and methods, fixing the judiciary, fixing the economy! Let us not follow the Prime Minister in taking this cowardly path out of fear and for political expediency. Please let us not!

Activism and Advocacy in Montego Bay

Joy doesn't betray but sustains activism. And when you face a politics that aspires to make you fearful, alienated and isolated, joy is a fine initial act of insurrection.

~Rebecca Solnit

True advocacy is born from culture, not technology or marketing.

~Jay Baer

Activism and advocacy are words that aren’t too big (as every other week somebody tells me I write with too many “big” words). They are often used interchangeably, and while their meanings and definitions do overlap, they are distinct and different concepts. An activist is a person who makes an intentional action to bring about social or political change. Samuel Sharpe was an activist who challenged the slavery systems in Jamaica which culminated in the Christmas Rebellion. Rosa Parks was a civil rights activist who challenged racial segregation in 1955 by refusing to give up her seat on a bus for a white man. An advocate, on the other hand, is one who speaks on behalf of another person or group. Shaggy is a Goodwill Ambassador of sorts who uses his talent and fame to advocate for the Children’s hospital. Activism, in a general sense, is intentional action to bring about social change, political change, economic justice, or environmental well being. This action is in support of, or opposition to, one side of an often controversial argument.

Now, what does all that have to do with Montego Bay? I’ll get to that shortly but I want to give more clarity to the word “activism” as it is often used describes protest or dissent, but activism can stem from any number of political orientations and take a wide range of forms, from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism (such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing preferred businesses), rallies, blogging and street marches, strikes, both work stoppages and hunger strikes, or even guerrilla tactics. An advocate can also be involved in controversial activities or issues, but because they are speaking on behalf of a group, they tend to be more likely to follow the paths of lobbying and legislation.

Is there activism in Montego Bay? Yes… especially the political kind, with councillors in the municipal corporation lobbying for political points. But that isn’t the kind I am talking about today. I am talking about activism and advocacy in the social and economic sphere. The brand of activism that tries to impact lives and uplift communities. Activism increases people’s confidence in making a difference, it improves governmental quality and leaders’/leadership accountability, it is the spark of extra-governmental change and many times throughout history it has revealed the immorality of laws like for instance the Civil Rights Era.

Activism has played a major role in ending slavery, challenging dictatorships, protecting workers from exploitation, protecting the environment, promoting equality for women, opposing racism, and many other important issues. Activism can also be used for aims such as attacking minorities or promoting war. Activism has been present throughout history, in every sort of political system. Yet it has never received the same sort of attention from historians as conventional politics, with its attention to rulers, wars, elections, and empires. Activists are typically challengers to policies and practices, trying to achieve a social goal, not to obtain power themselves. Much activism operates behind the scenes.

There are many varieties of activism, from the face-to-face conversations to massive protests, from principled behaviour to the unscrupulous, from polite requests to objectionable interference, and from peaceful protests to violent attacks.

Activism in Jamaica can be a pretty unglamorous thing, owing sometimes to apathy and funding. Me, personally I am an advocate for my community, Paradise and Norwood, for Open source, for Linux, for socialism, for pan-Africanism, for Rastafari, for senior citizens and youth. On any given Sunday I can be found at Rastafari Coral Gardens Benevolent Society (RCGBS) meetings, Residents Association meetings, Youth Club meetings or about some other community-oriented issue. The world of activism can sometimes be a slow and boring place, of talk, talk, talk, paperwork, paperwork, paperwork, letters to the editor, press releases, sponsorship letters and more letters. Movement and change can be slow, but I have found these places are the only place meaningful social change occurs. The RCGBS is the most meaningful vector of change within the pan African community in western Jamaica, with the success of the Prime Minister’s apology to its belt. The Paradise Youth Club, when it was most robust and had the full attention of my sistren Venise Samuels, it was the most unifying factor in the community and gave us the biggest community sports day, and most importantly a sense of hope.

Most inspiring to me though is the Senior Citizens Association, who of all the groups is an all women cast. Why I find them, most inspiring, is because I didn’t realize how much they had been doing within the community. They semi-adopt kids and sponsor some their schooling, keep prayers at all the nurseries, entering art and craft competitions, being apart of a bigger national Senior citizens body, etc. For some reason, all this blew my mind in a small way. For one it escaped my notice, and two it really hit me that most of the women in it, had in some real way given their lives to community and here and now at a ripe old age, in a day and age that can seem monstrous beyond belief, there was a cabal of women, the “gentler” of our species, at the frailest time of their lives, defying odds and convention and opposing the ugliness of modernity. If that isn’t activism and heroism I don’t know what is.

What I do know is… people are becoming better educated and less acquiescent to authority, and therefore better able to judge when systems are not working and willing to take action themselves. Today's political systems of representative government are themselves the outcome of previous activism. If these systems were fully responsive to everyone's needs, there would be no need for activism, but this possibility seems remote. For political systems to co-opt activism, activism would need to become part of the system, with techniques such as strikes, boycotts, and sit-ins becoming part of the normal political process - a prospect as radical today as voting was in the 1700s. When that happens, we can anticipate that new forms of activism will arise, challenging the injustices of whatever system is in place.

So who are you today? Are you advocate or activist? If any? You can advocate on behalf of a small group or large group and make a significant impact as one single person. Remember that you alone can make a difference.

About the author: Yannick Nesta Pessoa B.A. is Jamaica’s first blogger, a Social/Community Activist and Law Student at Utech Western Jamaica. Follow on Twitter at @yahnyk. Reply to yannickpessoa@gmail.com

Liked on YouTube: Sia - Chandelier (Spiderman edition)

Sia - Chandelier (Spiderman edition)
A fun edit I made with all the fun swinging scenes contained in Spiderman 1 and 2 illustrated by Chandelier, the song of Sia :D Enjoy!
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Leadership in the Bay

Montego Bay, needs revolutionary and dynamic leadership on the municipal level and representation on the national level! Star power, unorthodox plans, larger than life projects, projections for the future... The city bleeding like a wound these common thinkers cannot suture...

We don't need another hero!!!

Preparing for a Storm! #blog #bloggerblast #hurricane #matthewhurricane

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Throw Back Thursdays, because mi musical taste is diverse! #lennykravitz # tbt #throwbackthursdays #blog #electricchurch

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Blaze up the Challawah...

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