What if all of my Facebook friends were white?

What if all my Facebook friends were white? 

When I was kid I heard Ron Muschette on the radio saying that if wealth or the directions to finding diamonds, was in a book then the black man would never find it. I was around thirteen year old but I understood perfectly what he meant, I heard the maxim before, it meant black people rarely read and there fore the best place to hide something from them would be in a book. 

It is embarrassingly so. We are further behind in the "race" of life because knowledge holds the truths to the evolution of mankind and we stray everyday further and further away from anything that remotely involves an investment in reading. 

There are a few local groups online mainly Facebook, geared at soci-political upliftment. I observed the responses to posts in these groups with relation to likes and commentary. Try posting a profound statement and watch the likes and comments you get on a forum of twenty thousand Facebook members. Now look at the amount of likes and comments a poster gets for a flyer for a party on independence weekend in comparison You are liable to find the same twenty people liking your post and commenting on it, twenty times over.  What happened to the other nineteen thousand plus members? Now post a picture of a frivolity and before long, it is granted over fifty likes. 

I sometimes chalk this down to not having enough white friends. Black people claim that white people are superficial, maybe they should check themselves. They enjoy spending their entire lives copying everything white, abandoning and denouncing anything black and moving up to kiss ass behind white people. They are as meretricious as the white folks they complain about. They act like they all black but in reality hate themselves, take for instance a lot of Jamaican reggae singers, Rastafarians married to white or high brown skin women yet preach black consciousness and black beauty in their music. They probably can't help it, most black men see a relationship with a fair skin woman as exotic, exciting and superior. 

Nothing scares black people more than the success of another black person. It highlights their own inadequacy, they become enraged, angry at the achieved for showing the world that success is attainable if only one put their minds to it. It discredits the excuses of racism, classism and Slavery that many of use to hide behind why we have largely failed as a race in-spite of our many successes. 

Well some might say they don't read long post because they do not have the time, there are people out there using social media to enlightened the masses, posters and forum moderators becoming disillusioned because they have come to realize that Jamaicans are not interested in anything remotely revolutionary or profound. 

Those in the diaspora love nothing more than coming online to beat their chest about why they would never set foot on Jamaican soil again when they left families who while not actively but passively contributing to mayhem they talk about in their vitriol. They are part and sunder of the problems we have as a people, it is a mental issue. Instead of offering words of encouragement, they gloat in the failures of their country, firing off in malicious satisfaction trying to find a way to justify their notion that it is the worst place on earth and they are happy that they left. They will find every way of highlighting the bad about this country, look at the Gleaner and Observer commentary section, lot of comments when the news is bad and three or so comments when successes are highlighted among our people. 

I guess our ancestors probably said the same thing about Africa when they boarded the slave ships or no, the local slaves horned in the America's wasted no time in telling them how inferior they were because they hailed from the motherland. 

Black people have some serious issues with success. They have a "climb on top of everyone in my race mentality" while remain under those outside my race's  conviction. Look at how a black Jamaican security guard treats his Chinese employer as opposed to how he will publicly disrespect, insult and humiliate his black employer. Often drawing reference to the skin of the soil to reinforce his belittlement, telling him that despite what you have achieved you are no better than me because you are still black. 

Think about how black people in a dominantly dark skin country like Jamaica treat other black people when they come to do business especially in the service industry. The receptionist is liable to treat you with blatant disregard, usher you to a waiting chair with a look of disgust on her face and regard your impatience with overall contempt. She would blather away on the phone ( hence why when you call you get a busy signal), do a million things on the computer before responding to your queries and in many cases you will end up leaving there without the information you wanted because the receptionist does not know anything about the company she works in. 

Now watch the receptionist perk up when a white, high brown or Chinese individual enters the room. She will go above and beyond to get the necessary information, respond in a saccharine tone and with a permanent smile plastered on her face, twinkles in her eyes. 

We have been taught to hate and to treat each other with contempt, never allowing anyone to feel they are better than us if they are the same colour. The receptionist can't help the way she is because she was socialized to believe her education albeit fragmented makes her very bright and superior to other black people. Her parents encouraged her to treat those whom were below her ( dunces and those from

poor homes with disregard), she has carried over those values into adulthood. 

Herein lies the theory for our failed system of education, we have smart black people with the wrong values. Smart black people who regard education as status instead of liberation unless we get our values right and get back to the books then we won't ever improve the plight of our people. 

Am not interested in us conquering the world, I just want us to be able to help and support each other since very few people outside will. Just imagine black writers probably get more support from non black readers than their own kind. We spend a lot of time waiting for "others" to validate the success of our people before we embrace or give them support. 

I once had a white friend whom I dearly loved and she was a good friend indeed until she started dating a black man from my area and everything changed. The black man made up conjectures about me and left out everything about himself. I did not quarrel with my friend, our friendship deteriorated, he made me out to be an opportunist. He won because she failed to see that he was destroying our relationship so that he could get what he wanted out of her. She didn't see it until it was far too late. 

I once heard a story that a black man could never own a bank. If he did succeed in getting his own people to bank there, they would watch him like a shark, and if he shows prosperity such as buying a new house, his black brothers would believe he stole from them. They would insist that they wanted back their monies and no doubt run his business into bankruptcy. Don't think you can explain this to them, they are more interested in getting back their money than the legalities of the business. 

Black people will jump through hoops and do everything possible to ensure that you don't make it to the top. Yet they can never invest the same amount of enthusiasm and tenacity into fueling their own success because it is always easier to be a destroyer and a hater than to lend support to each other. 

Woman Scorned: Excerpt from Book

Love is an elusive emotion. You can't help it. It just happens, unexpected, unbidden. It is like a disease, a drug additive, constant and obsessive. Our reaction to someone we like is fascinating, intricate and confusing. Our angst about love and relationship is tied to our fantasies and ideation of what being in love is and suppose to be like. 

We might not admit it but we all have a checklist in our head of what we are looking for in a partner. We want that other half that we believe completes us. It is this mode of thinking that opens a trap door for obsession and addiction to love or the idea of being in love. Love is a powerful

Drug. A lovelorn woman's lover is a drug addict looking for a next fix. The slightest comment, look or embrace triggers a state of euphoria sending doses of dopamine into the blood stream. 

This explains why it is very difficult almost unlikely for a woman crazily in love with a man to be able to resist the temptation to call him, to seek out that "cocaine like high" we all experience in a new relationship.

And like the literally drug addiction, a high is often followed by an abysmal low. The perverse magic and materiality of love is a timeless obsession since the beginning of our existence. It is this unmerited, offhand feeling that makes a simple quirk of the lips or upward tilt of the eyebrows unmistakably sensual. 

Love lends an inimitable pleasure to the deep baritone of a man's voice, a seductiveness to the power of his leg strides and a breathtaking aura to his presence. Love transforms the growls, snarls and grrrrrrr of a man's voice into the sexiest attribute. You either have it or you don't!!! 

Love transcends the simplest of gestures into something extraordinary. Eyes that once behold the world become Windows's to ones soul, limpid pools of pleasure, glances of indiscretions and light feathery touches sending tingles from skin to bone. Your entire body awakens, fluids rushing into places and sensational sounds emits from ones lips involuntarily. 

When you fall in love. You unknowingly place your happiness at the mercy of another's companionship. Those who say otherwise, have only skipped cross the raggedy terrains of love in a parachute and from the other side -beckon you to come across its steep landscape barefeet. 

Lessons Learn in the Jamaican Ghetto Life

The Buddha asserts that in every experience holds a blessing that one just needs to find it. 

It was last night, I was remembering a time when I was really broke. I went to a friend's house early in the morning and asked for a borrows to go hustle on the road. My friend told me that she would check me as soon as I get home. I waited the entire day and my alleged friend never turned up. 

An epiphany struck me at the end of the day because I managed to survive that day without the money I wanted to borrow. In my mind asking for that money was irrelevant in the first place because I did not get and still manage to survive that day without it. I never borrowed or begged anyone anything again. 

If god can provide for the birds and the animals much less me a macroscopic organism created as claimed by chacurist in his very own image.That is how I lived my life since. Committed to the belief that god will provide. 

I have another friend of recent who we were discussing my HYIP Fund.  He told me that he would give me a 100 dollars USD to invest for him. The next day. He reneges on his intent and told me he had several bills to cover. That was under stable and so i let it go. Now what I found rather irritating and downright unconscionable is that the same person would like me to invest a quarter million dollars now in a hedge fund. This person could not invest ten grand with me but wants me to invest quarter million with him. Something was awfully wrong here. 

The problems in our society can easily be fixed if we become less of a selfish people. I have discovered that people are largely about themselves. Nobody wants to lose their money and nobody wants to lose their time doing any ground work. Everyone wants guarantees and every thing " ready done". 

Don't they think for a moment that there were not people out there who wished they had invested in bill gates ideas before he became a billionaire. I know there must a be a lot of people who missed out on great opportunities because they transferred the doubts they have in their own abilities onto others, making them insecure about the capabilities of others. They missed out on a big opportunity to own a good amount of shares in Microsoft. 

I have heard many old people talk about when land was being sold for hundred and thousand dollars. They often rue not buying many more because they never assumed the value of land would escalate this astronomical. 

People with money would share  with those whom they feel threatened by. There are many people with money who if you should beg them, they won't give it to you but will very quickly hand over thousands of a dollars being an ingrate to someone important or to some dude who might stick a gun in their face. 

Now I understand clearly the point the commissioner makes about illicit money funding crime. I've observed that scammers would rather "pay dues" to individuals who create mayhem and murder than give a woman with a hungry child a thousand dollars. That within itself is a harsh reality. Money in the hands of fool will only brook chaos. 

These young men in the ghetto who make money through illegal activities, god probably knew why they were not born in money. 

Imagine that a lot of them would rather pay extortion money to some murderer and criminal whilst the people who live around them live in poverty. You can't even beg them a thousand dollars and get it. What does that tell you about the way that they think? 

Gussy would never turn away a hungry child or a mother in need. He was probably born the wrong place. I see the son of a governor get a scant wake and grave digging considering the fact that he is wealthy and important. Gussy, the child of a street side seller and a promiscuous father who deserted him from he was a preschooler received a historical celebration of life. Your life should be an inspiration to others. 

There is nothing wrong with the universe because it always restores life to its tantric balance. I see a mother through arbitration denied another mother to right bury her child who died in an accident on a plot of land because they wanted money for it and some ongoing dispute. 

I remember going to see the mother and hear her leave a voice message for the opposing family after they stopped taking calls from her. She said, tears steaming down her face " a hope none a unoo pickney no dead". She cried so hard that morning. 

People can be truly heartless. But in the midst of wickedness, the wicked always forget that they too have a fragile existence. They don't spend enough time rationalizing hence they make irrational decisions. As the powers that maybe will have it. The opposing mother's son died three months later. He was electrocuted at his work place.  I have every confidence in god or the power of the universe or whatever one might call it. Not one bad deed had gone unpunished in this Universe. 

I believe fixing this country is easy. Get rid of this personal ambition quest For superiority and start thinking about our collective interest. What's the sense you get rich and then you have to build fortress to keep the beggars out.

Agrarian societies were more peaceful. Capitalism has only fueled a materialistic world and egoism.

Gussy's Homecoming: Buried like a King

Today is Gussy's Funeral, he had a phenomenal cleaning day, an inimitable grave digging and historic Wake and I am almost sure he will have a thanksgiving service unlike no other. 

I believe that if Jesus was killed by his own people then any of us, as good as we might be, as Puritan as our moral stance or as transparent a character as we are, our individuality is forever at the mercy of the tribal values.

There are many Ghetto Jesus that we crucify along with thieves because people within our own communities set them up. We have Pharisees and scribes who sit on their self righteous throne and pretend to want good for our collective well being. When In truth they are only seeking their own individual opportunism and salvation... It's a facade, it's not really about us. It is about them. 

The self righteous must be poked with the truth to shatter their fake veneer and allow their real personalities to explode like a dynamite. 

We are the architects of our society which means it is not set in stone. We can break it and rebuild it anyway. Why do we pretend that our notion of a society is not intangible and pliable to our aspirations?

There was a time when slavery was considered acceptable by very Christian, highly religious societies. What does that say about how we as a people see injustices. Well it is ok to be cruel to people if they are from certain economical circumstances or if "upper echeleon" of society deems it so. We tolerate injustices as long as it does not affect us or it benefits us in some way. 

I gave a tribute at Gussy Funeral about how I thought someone like him who has done more good than bad for his community was killed by the protectors of our community was a chilling paradox. Gussy who several pastors attest to assisting with community charities. Grandpus a man who we all knew from childhood was dying in an infirmary and Pastor Evans had approached Gussy with his wish to be buried not by the infirmary but the generosity of his community. Gussy told pastor Evans no problem, just get everything together and I will pay for the package. That was Gussy... 

A boy crashed in a bike collision and his mom could not afford his surgery and she approached Gussy. It cost 100,000 dollars and in a few hours Gussy rounded up contributions from every one and the mother was on her way to saving her son. 

A young man of poor circumstances died, a destitute old man and Gussy along with his friends assist with the burial. Gussy gave to the poor and assist the needy. He has done more for this community than any elected politician, he was only twenty four years old. 

If you wanted to do a business, Gussy was approachable. Everybody could come to him and ask for assistance. Gussy made dreams come true. Gussy send pickney go a school. Why do you suppose the officers allowed us to properly mourn his death instead of treating him like the common criminal some people assumed he must be to be gunned down by the police. 

Man has an idea for a play involving key actors in the Jamaican play community. He approaches Gussy as an investor. Gussy started advertising his play the Wednesday and he was killed the next morning. That's my last memory of his coming from his afternoon football session with his friends driving his brothers jeep advertising an event no one has ever considered doing here. 

Restocking Hardwares, building a pool bar, a craft market in Negril for his older brother. Investing in parties, committing to charities. Is he a criminal or a martyr? 

Well yes he might have been a criminal in the eyes of some people. If so be the case then we have police and politicians that are criminals too but we don't hear anybody demanding that they be gunned down and flung into van back like a dog.

 Oh Right, I forgot, Gussy mother sell pon roadside and him daddy push hand cart fe mind them and when him couldn't manage the economical strain of taking care of the children , he abandoned Miss Madge. Gussy Father admits at the grave digging that if Gussy walked past him, he would not even recognized his own son. He cried when he admitted that Gussy called him several times, saying "daddy cone check me no". He cried that Gussy called and told him about what he was doing and everything he bought. Gussy was a forgiving young man and reached out to his father. 

None a you have any right to judge these youths cause unoo don't know weh them a come from. I carried water from stand pipe up until I was seventeen years old, I had to get up every morning go clean out my fathers business place and the house before u go school. Sometimes me late. I have back problems now from carrying those heavy jugs and I can't sleep till morning light because my body is trained to wake before dawn and do domestic chores. I thought my life was hard then but I now realise that some people have it worst than me. My father never abandoned us. He might not have been the greatest father but I was never hungry and I went to school everyday. Do you think it is fair to Miss Madge for someone to take away her child that she has made sacrifices for and invest in before he came to actual fruition? 

Stop reasoning with your prejudices and classism because that is what this is a about. A girl wrote that we should never assume that my cousin went to heaven because him was never living a life to warrant entrance in the kingdom of God. I kept thinking " what the fuck does she know about Gussy? He has done more good than her and as far as I am concern in a greater position for heaven than she, the pastor himself said that gussy better than nuff so all Christians because he had a good heart . 

I know because Gussy black like a tar and he looks Ghetto cuz poverty no wash offa him yet. Hard life still a show pon him. He does not look refined and he's not related to anyone important. He's a king where he is from and that is most important. Gussy will always be remembered, he's done more for this community than people born inna money yah. I know one particular one, you couldn't even get a thousand dollar fe borrow from him cuz him always bruck and him a drive convertible. And Gussy gave away thousands of dollars. But mr convertible might contend that Gussy was kind and him end up dead cause its his generosity that lures the good and the evil towards him. That maybe do but it never deterred him from giving back to the poor. I have to learn to live with his death. It's gonna take the woman in me to get over his death. 

When i see people from near and far bawling and wailing at sight of the escalade drawn chariot with his lifeless body in a glass casket. I know from every indication that he was loved by everyone. 

Death had an epiphany on me. It has a way of putting life into perspective. When Checky was murdered, I no longer I obsessed about the fifty something pound I gained after my daughter because Checky lived in a gym everyday, everyone knew how he worshiped his body and to see all that hard work go to waste. I would have taken Checky back even if he was fat like that Gabriel girl that played "precious" because I liked interacting with him. Gussy death exposes how much I should never take anyone for granted, cherish every moment I spend with the people I love because you do not know when someone is gonna your life. 

I do not know how anyone can think it is ok or justifiable for Miss Madge to bury her son after all that she has invested in him. After struggling to sell on the road side and pushing hand cart to buy the chicken back and the bag a rice to feed her four sons and three daughters, someone or any one deserves to deny her the right to get grandchildren from Gussy... Smh... Donkey say the world no level. 

Gussy community Hero or Social Pariah?

"“I believe that you're great, that there's something magnificent about you. Regardless of what has happened to you in your life, regardless of how young or how old you think you might be, the moment you begin to think properly, there's something that is within you, there's powerwithin you, that's greater than the world. It will begin to emerge. It will take over your life. It will feed you. It will clothe you. It will guide you, protect you, direct you, sustain your very existence, if you let it. Now, that is what I know for sure."

~ Michael Bernard Beckwith

Yesterday was reserved for cleaning up Gussy's grave spot. 

We had several discussions On Gusdy yesterday. We never see one man grave spot clean up so fast or so much people volunteering. Since some people think you somehow deserved to die then tell me why are so many people uniting and validating your life. Even the supt and indecom visited. Influential people in our community who don't associate with known criminals grabbing raker tick, five wackers, lawn mowers and offering cow, goat and hog to celebrate the life of a social pariah?????

 A lot of people rate "Gussy" because he had money. I respected and valued his character😋.he was ambitious and driven to success and he worked in tandem with everyone, he was also very kind. He had aspirations and goals to become someone truly upstanding in our community. It is for this reason why his death by the agents of law and order is such a riveting tragedy.

A man whose son was gun downed by unknown assailants wept in woes for Gussy and he was also very vocal about the killing of Checky. He quite vehemently spoke about a very tragic consistency we noticed in our community and that is of good people who could contribute to the growth of our communities dying by the hands of violence. 

Checky who build a gym, emphasizing health and exercise vitality to our society was cut down like a notorious murderer and his friend a bystander shot several times. 

In our discussions we emphasized the culture of hitmanism in Jamaica because that's the main reason the crime rate going up. It is because bad mind people, those with vicious minds and morbid inclinations can readily find any Likkle ediat bwoy with a gun to hire and kill people. 

An Assasination is evil on a different tier. How could I not knowing someone, go and take his/her life because someone paid me to do so. We really have a decay in our emotional fortitude in this country. Some people like to pretend that it's only Ghetto youths bloodthirsty and walk up and down murdering people. 

I keep saying that Gussy was no saint but then again Jesus says, he who is without sin cast the first stone...it is unfortunate that people capable of and committing worst atrocities than those he was accused of are allowed to be alive and walking our streets. And they rained stones down on you. 

The director for indecom said something rather crucial yesterday. He opined that everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die. People clamouring for justice yet no one is willing to put their lives on the line to see that justice is serve and that is one of the greatest handicaps to having a peaceful society.

"Most people think, 

Great god will come from the skies, 

Take away everything 

And make everybody feel high. 

But if you know what life is worth, 

You will look for yours on earth: 

And now you see the light, 

You stand up for your rights. jah!"

-Bob Marley

“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.” 

― Martin Luther King Jr

“Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.” 

We are Jamaicans, not JLP or PNP!

-Lisa

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Whose side are you on in Jamaica?

In a country where reality is mostly contrived, nothing is ever what it seems to be. There are powers at work, social designs and political manipulations to generate the reality that we know today. 

There is no one way to rationality when it comes to analyzing our Jamaican society. Sometimes you have to take the highway, other times the by ways and in some cases even the low road. 

Many persons have become unsettled with the recent upsurge of police killings that has forced a rift in our country. It has forced me to wonder what is a Jamaican's life really worth in the grand scheme of things. 

Whose side can you really be on? The side of the police officers until they kill someone for you and the media outlet states that a shoot out ensued. The side of the "bad men" until they kill one of your own or even you. It's like you damn if you do and you damned if you don't. 

You are between a rock and a hard place. You don't even know whose side to be on because the lines are not so clear. 

What if say by chance, you knew of a crime and failed to report it. You know that each day that the bad man is alive that your life too is in jeopardy but then again you cannot confide in the police officers because they themselves cannot be trusted. 

What do you do? 

You wait for the police officers to kill you because you befriend the bad man and had no choice or you show the bad man how much you dislike him until him start pree you and kill you. You damn if you do and you are damned if you don't. 

No wonder there is a sense of hopelessness in Jamaica because people do not feel very safe anymore. I don't understand how some people choose not to vote in the elections and allow a small group to decide the future of our nation. 

I don't understand what intelligent or sane human being would give up his only say in the running of his country because he is dissatisfied with the choices given to him. My granny always say chose the lesser evil. 

I feel like Iive in a monarchy. All the people I knew in politics since I was at primary school or still in it today. My biggest issue has been... Are they for the future of this country including my peers and the youths coming up or are they still playing politricks like they did in the eighties. 

The Good Samaritan

I notice something about poor people and it is that when you decide to offer them a helping hand they take it as an opportunity "live pon you". 

It is as if an act of kindness is interpreted as a demonstration of weakness. People believe you open yourself to exploitation. 

I often extend a helping hand to people with children and people who are in need because I often feel sorry for the Children. 

But I know I run a very serious risk by helping people to feed these children especially boys who might end my life later. 

My grand mother tells me that if you ever feel sorry for mawga dogs, they will turn round and bite you. Someone might add, how can one be sympathetic with or be sorry for the very same people who short of reason will get rid of you in the blink of an eye. 

I've realise that it is easy for people who are not from the ghetto to condemn me. Its true. I must be in support of the lawlessness, decadence and criminality that flourishes in the Ghetto. I can never be an intellect or one of them and have any empathy for people who chose a illicit, mundane and reckless behavior as their modus operandi. 

Why do I fight for people who by all means do not want to be apart of my warfare.  I should probably let them fight their own battles. I am fighting a losing war. I am putting my fragile existence in jeopardy for a people who by all accounts do not care about me. 

I do not back lawlessness but I am very supportive of the human condition. I believe every human being is rehabilitative. We have a choice. We must choose the type of life that we want to live but circumstances renders some of us option less. We just have to work with what we get. 

Some people are lucky not to be related to any "scum of the earth" so they think it gives them right to label and judge people. I often believe that it they would come off their high horse and live the life of one of these persons for a day, they might gain more perspective into how "easy" they think it is to survive on "worthless" neegga level. 

How can someone who has never lived in these social circumstances be in an advantageous position to decide what they think people who are within that capacity should think. 

Bad mind is crippling Jamaica

Bad mind is the Jamaican Vernacular for envy and covetousness. It is a treacherous emotion. For the very thing that a man bad mind you for is the very thing that he wants for himself. 

The bad mind individual his insecure about the future of his own development. He hates people who make his dreams easily attainable while he struggles to achieve small victories. 

The bad mind woman believes that he/she is deserving of success without effort due to a false inflated sense of self that was nurtured during childhood. The bad mind man thinks everyone is an enemy to his success when he is a threat to the victories of others and to himself. 

The bad mind individual probably had parents who filled his head with successful fantasies, encouraged an empty self esteem that bred into narcissism. 

Narcissism and bad mind goes hand in hand, the bad mind person has an inflated ego. He or she believes things about themselves which are fallacies.Bad mind is not just a mild envy, it is a force of darkness that if left to grow will spark serious issues in any social settings. What began as admiration quickly grows into dislike and hatred due to "BadMind". Envy is natural, we are only human to hate feeling unaccomplished, dissatisfied with our station in life and feeling slighted by the smooth achievements of others. Bad mind transcend the dark side of the feelings of low self worth by inkling the individual to seek annihilation instead of self upliftment  

They measure the value of their existence  juxtaposed with that of others. They use people as yardsticks to validate their lives. It is not easy living a life in competition with others for there will always be men greater and lesser than thee. 

The bad mind is a slithering snail. Bad mind people spend more time orchestrating your demise than concentrating the same energies into uplifting themselves. They have missed the grand points in achievements and do not comprehend that accomplishments are not brought about by wishful thinking. You must persevere, be diligent and tenacious in whatever task you are doing and make death the only stumbling block to prosperity. 

The bad mind person does understand the concept of death very well. It is an ultimate weaponry. The frail state of our existence makes death a tool that anyone can use to preclude or pulverize any progress that we hope to achieve. The prevalence of "hitmen" makes it even more easier as your life is worth nothing in the eyes of the man with the Gun. You are as dead as the depths of the bad mind man or woman's pocket. 

What is the cure for Man? 

People must learn to accept who they are and lie themselves. Embracing their unique qualities and make the best of the god given tools that they were endowed. We must teach our children to use the genetic cards they were dealt at conception to the best of their abilities. 

It includes encouraging them to follow their dreams and to never use others as measuring sticks to validate themselves. 

We should instill certain mores in our children and encourage values on our society that beseech our people to be committed to achieving through hard work. 

We must not sell false dreams and hopes to our generations. They can become who they want to be within their own capacities and not that of others. We are all apart of a grand system and everyone contributes to the function of our society on a whole. 

Some of us were born to lead and others to follow. If you cannot improve the state of a situation then do not attempt to perturb the status. It is not about you, it is about us as a people. 

We are a network, we are interrelated and we are dependent on each other. Every action stimulates an equal reaction.  We must be careful what pawns we remove from this game of Chess! We might by engineering our own demise simply by dominoe effect. 

why do Jamaican People enjoy being graders of others!

I was recently called rather haphazardly to do a rendition in speech at an event in my community. Before I exited the stage, several individuals in the audience began to criticise, dissect and evaluate what I said on the podium.


People who for the most part seemed more interested in belittling me than concentrating on the real issues at hand at the forum all because they knew that I was a little girl from their community who use to run up and down in thighs carrying water on the ball field.

Thats the thing about black people, if you do not put them in their place, they will at every opportunity remind you of the lowly status you once had. It is better and easier for them to remember where you are coming from because that is what they are comfortable with. Believe me that if you do not leave their domain and branch out, you can easily be choked by the detestation,inferiority complexes and issues they have within themselves that they constantly reflect upon you.

Ghetto people have very lofty ideals for others but none for themselves. They have no ambition and are always interested in stimulating the aspirations of others or trying to undermine your endeavours. You can count on your hands how many people from "where am from" ever genuinely wished you success.

Some do initially wish you the best because they think that you will never achieve suffice to surpass them and become back-stabbers when you supersede their expectations. They are appalled that someone who they deemed inferior to them have reached a level that in by extension of their abilities is somewhat formidable if not unattainable.

They are even more aggravated by the mysterious nature of your occupation which only serves to aggrandize their loathing of you. Jamaican people are quick to form opinions of you without knowing anything about you. I have been the blunt of these labels by people who are not my friends; People who I have never had any form of conversations with, think that they are an authority on my character. Their evaluation is solely based on whatever bias scenario: real or imagined they have going on in their head.


IN life I have learnt to work with what I have. I try my best to win with the cards that my genes dealt to me or those that the hand of fate passes my way. I have become a happier person since I have learned to accept me for who I am warts and all...I have never felt more peace, serenity and enjoyed success.


Some people have a misconception about intellectuality...

"A lot of our intellects have not been educated on a spiritual level. A person who is enlighten spiritually behaves differently, reacts to others in a way that is reminiscent of someone of a higher consciousness. The ability to pass an examination does not mean you are intelligent nor is the capacity to identify (SYMBOLS)words on a page. It simply means you are scholastic, you are academically ahead but until you are educe on spiritual level then everything you achieve will be as corporeal as the body your soul dwells in"

Is this the way corporate Telecommunication Giants Digicel treat their Customers?

I was enraged earlier in September when I could not access the Internet for a few days. During this period, I had made several calls to Digicel 100 number complaining of the disservice and the fact that it was affecting my online businesses. Digicel had assured me that I would get a rebate for the four days that I was without service. I wished I had videoed those days instead of taking snapshots because Digicel apparently took me " for a fucking idiot". 

I called and thank them for restoring my service and reminded them of the promised rebate. I did not follow up albeit my family insisted that those days were a lost because Digicel is like so manyGovernment  agencies, poor people never get any satisfaction just red tape, condescension and disregard. Hoping that we will become so fed up of the process that we give up and abandoned our quest altogether because they make it appear futile.

This is not my first run in with Digicel. DIgicel refused to be accountable for the sudden disappearance of my credit off my phone or why even though they say that you get twentyfive minutes   free after five minutes on any International call, the call is miraculously disconnected. I always get a bag of excuses and corporate diatribe about what they supposedly saw on their system. Apparently technology " a human made component" could not err or the fact that they were telling me about a system that I was not viewing simultaneously should confirm that they are in fact telling me the truth. Digicel who sends me text stating that I will get triple credit if my phone is topped up from abroad yet I have to call them to get the triple credit.

This did not just happen to me but to my entire community and Digicel called us all a liar. I do not need to deceive Digicel. I am upset that the average Jamaican has to spend almost fifty grand a year on Internet service and yet Digicel deprived me of four days of Internet where Digicel charges people 300 dollars a day to browse the Internet. 

The other day I said that I am gonna buy a Lime Modem. After all it is faster and I don't get any crap from their customer service. And I can get 1000 petitions from around Jamaica concerning questionable responses Digicel Jamaica has made to customers queries of disservice and dissatisfaction. 

The time alone that you are forced to remain on the line for customer service is enough deterrent for most Jamaicans to never call in to report faults with their system. Even my family told me that was futile to ask for the rebate. it's all good Digicel . Take sleep mark dead...

Where is the Justice in our society?

People view justice differently depending on how it suits their individual needs. I see a man readily advocate the murder of an innocent man because his friend was offended by the said man yet will quickly jump to physically assault someone who offends him.

So a crime becomes OK if it is seen from our perspective.

My grandmother always said that show me your friends and I will tell you who you are. Why are you surprised that a man who endorses gangsters and rove with alleged thugs would defend the humanity rights of a simple boy from no where, with no money, no gangster ties and no clout.


Whenever someone close to me dies, I am force to check myself. Some people death does not faze them. I go through periods of introspection where I question my own humanity and what role do I play in this grand scheme of things. I question the value of my life. I see my humanity within every other human being and that is what often makes the ending of a human life so troublesome to my weary mind. I value everyone, even some who we might deem do not deserve it.


Everybody cannot be right. We will face injustices but what we do about it decides how our children will handle it later and what kind of society we are shaping for our children. Imagine if our ancestors just sat back and watch the white supremacist keep us in slavery, we would still be a nation in slavery with bigger issues than we have now.


One day you here another day some punk slips you into unconscious oblivion. I look at these little boys walking around in my natal community whose mothers cannot afford to send them to school but they are still having children themselves. These boys who are stealing people's rabbits and puppies, selling them to unsuspecting buyers for money. Yet their mothers are busy wearing hairstyles, buying new clothes and "breeding" again for some "careless nigger". I mused that in all probability one of these little boys might take my life in the future. Not just a probability, at the rate of things... a damn near possibility.




What do you suppose we as Jamaicans lack most ? Comment answers. I think empathy. We have become a selfish people only thinking about ourselves and our own and whatever we can get at the price of whoever with disregards for whomever...We do not think that "what if this had happened to me?' would the taking of this my life be a fair price? Would death be a fair punishment? What is this was my family?


We do not think like that,we say its ok, or i do not care because it never happened to anybody for me etc.

Why Jamaican's diss the police but respect the Gun Man: Under the Mango Tree Philosophies

THERE ARE SO MANY LESSONS THAT I HAVE LEARNT SINCE I WAS A CHILD FROM THE VERANDAH DISCUSSIONS TO THE UNDER MANGO TREE EXPLOSIVE ARGUMENTS.

These trees have stories to tell...here is one more...


We were sitting underneath the mango tree discussing the recent upheavals within our community when a very intellectual member of our community made a stalwart remark. He said " Ghetto people nuh easy eenuh because danna dead, and people are afraid to talk yet if a did police murder danna, then we woulda have big demonstrations, vandalism of public property and riot" Yet when people within our own communities murder our neighbours we are afraid to publicly denounced what is happening with illegal firearm".


He posed his question to me...

It is something that had troubled me since I was a child and moreso recently and it is a question of why most Jamaicans will publicly crucify the police when innocent people are murdered but turn a blind eye when citizens kill civilians.

I remarked that it has a lot to do with accountability and the culture of hatred that has been recycled over generations for the police force. This abhorrence of the police force stems from slavery when the militia was often called upon to repress the slaves, suppress uprisings and revolts. We have a socio-anthropological detestation of the police force that is inherently cultural and socially programmed.
It is reinforced during the years of colonialism when we fought for our independence and many died by the hands of the police in civil unrest. Our garrison communities are often plagued by extra judicial killings and police brutality therefore children are socialised to respect the Gun man as a protector and justice executor and to loathe the police man as a corrupt, distrustful and abusive representation of the system of oppression.

The police enforces the ideologies and policies of the state which is often spearheaded by members of the ruling or upper class in society. Police officers are regarded as traitors, they have betrayed their community to work for the oppressive system.


There are many rumoured instances within society where "informers are killed because they gave information to the police. This has compounded the distrust that citizens often feel for the police who for many lower socio-economical individuals have failed to protect the majority of its people. Gun men often fire shots to ward off intruders from other areas signalling that the district is protected, offering the citizens a sense of security that the police officers have failed to engender over the years. Popular notion is that if you are friend with police officers, you are labelled an informer and informers within the Jamaican society are assured a swift demise.

Why are Bad Men reverred?

Every body wants to be a badman but no man wants to be a police officer. Bad man culture is revered and the bad man respected by members of the community mostly out of fear than anything else. It is only natural that we will develop a fixation and admiration for the man who deals in what we fear most..death. Not that we do not respect police men, we very much tremble in the presence of the "bad man"police officers that acts more like a rogue cop. The bad men fear the rogue cop because they know the rogue police man will if necessary break the law in his carrying out of justice.

He exudes a level of fearlessness akin to the that of the Bad man. It is this level of unaccountability that makes the bad man feared and the police man disregarded. Ordinary citizens do not fear the bad man police because they know that he serves the purpose of being as ruthless as the neighbourhood gun man. And the average civilians understands that the Gun Man only fears the "bad man' police.


When last has someone been convicted of murder in Jamaica? Most Bad Men roam free until they "rake up the wrong ants nest" and are killed by their own people or the police. All bad men have a bad end. The police is accountable to the states, the government, the judiciary and legislative institutions and most of all to the people that they swore to defend, serve and protect. The gun man has no loyalty to anyone. He fears no one and is not answerable to any governing body. He is loyal to his gun as his bread maker, security and emblem of power. A community knows this albeit not in so many words but this is the central reason why people within an area will know of a crime and are afraid to talk about it because unlike the police the Bad man rarely takes prisoners.

Cable TV has without a doubt contributed to the fascination that we have with men who perpetuate and flirt with death. We are enthralled by how someone could bring about what most of us cannot even envision ourselves thinking. Some people say that young men become assassins because of needs and wants. Killing someone is just a job to them. It gives them an increase level of confidence,control and leverage to know that people fear their ability to take a fellow man's life. The more savagery that they exhibit with their murderers, the higher the respect that they get up the bar.

What turns an innocent baby boy into Murder?

Some experts claim that Childhood Abuse, Mental Incapacity and a criminal culture are the central factors that turn little boys into murderers, rapist and psychopaths.

Many experts attest that most killers are mad in the sense of the word and gain thrill from seeing the life expend from another. Some murderers simply do what they are good at, and if killing gives them a sense of social importance in society. People might not like them but no one will ever disrespect them, people will fear them.

The cost does not outweigh the benefits of the being a contract killer because in a country like Jamaica, a contract killer will never get caught. He will most likely be murdered by members of his organised crime culture, or a young aspirant seeking to stamped his name in the crime culture.

"A big attraction of violence is that the criminal likes to feel that he is acting like God; the thrill of possessing God's power to kill someone is a big attraction"

THE CULT OF THE MAN WHO KNOWS DEATH

We feel contempt, anger, and disgust for the maniacal madman who hysterically kills humans out of sadism, perversion, or just lunacy, and we feel equal contempt for the person who kills in anger or by accident. Yet, perversely, our society stands in awe of those who have the ability to kill while coolly in control of themselves.

" why we romanticize bad men and hit men: they are men who control death. No one is the equal of the man who knows death, uses it, and does not flinch. Look at Patton, James Bond, Bugsy Siegel, Vito Corleone…

I often wonder if Gun men do not think about the fragility of their own humanity when they are taking another life. I beg to envision that with each death there comes a certainty that his/hers individual demise is imminent. Everything goes up in Jamaica except the price of life.

Why GHetto children become criminals in Jamaica?

Being a product of the Ghetto, I understand what can happen to your mind when you live in the slum. The socio-psychological elements of the lower socio-economical class of Jamaica will turn any cherub into a monster. The gun has become the emblem of power and living within the confines of fear is a mind murdering component.

But many bad boys will tell you that this is not how they envisioned their future. They once imagined that they would become who their parents wanted them to be when they became adults. Life throws curve balls at a youngster, those who are not psychologically equipped to deal with this life will turned to gangs.Most people in the ghetto do not trust police officers and they hate politicians because they blame the police for harassing them and the politicians for misleading them.They see the government and the police officers as oppressors.





Ghetto People are largely exploited by people with money. Men with money bribe ghetto boys into becoming soldiers of their militia by supplying them with money, clothes and guns. Men with money also have several young women in the ghetto who carry children for them that they never recognise or take care of. Some politicians use the myopic knowledge and wistful dreams of the Ghetto people to put themselves into power.

Ghetto people feel marginalised, abandoned, hopeless, angry. Their children internalise these elements and therefore grow up to live a life similar to their ancestors. Most Ghetto children there is no escape from the life they live or the labels attached to them because of where they were born.

Girls who try to hold their heads up are allegedly raped or impregnated to keep them in their place. Our Children are not safe. Our boys are being drawn into alternative lifestyle practises for the sake of money. In the Ghetto, money is the order of the day.

Money equals life, food and validation therefore a man will do anything to get money. Children are inadvertently taught that people who seems as if they have something in abundance should either be charmed into giving it to them and if they refused then they should be coerce either by badness or death to share what they have. Parents do not purposely tell their children to become criminals but they encourage certain behaviour of borrowing, begging and indiscipline that shapes the mind of the violent adult.

The gun culture is as strong as ever now. Most kids want to become either a shotta or a scammer. Only shottas and Scammers making money in Jamaican Ghetto. How can we convince them to turn from a life of crime when people who live civil lives are victimised and suffering. One gangster said "I do not believe in suffering, I only believe in life and death".

Imagine growing up seeing your dad not having anything to eat or drink, siblings bawling for hunger and cooking outside on the wood fire even when it rains. This will turn any well meaning youngster into a killer, after all a popular Jamaican adage claims that man have to die in order for some other men to live. You begin to want to emulate the don because he has nice cars and a house. He has his choice of women. Who would not want his life. So you are lured into survival. It is not about keeping your dignity or values, it is about your life.

But then we create monsters even within ourselves. When we kill a little boy's father then your family and community becomes his enemy for life. He will no doubt choose a life of a gangster. And otherwise normal child grows up with feelings of vendetta, carrying vengeance for the death of his father. He will never reconcile why someone who should have secured his well being choose to take away his parent from him and leave him angry,sad and bitter. People you know will make your life a living hell, people you grow up with will fight you over scarce benefits and murder your family for money.

Sitting whole day with nothing to occupy ones mind will turn it into an abyss. So its better to create some drama in ones life even if it is mayhem.
Gunshots play havoc on a child's concentration, how can he learn in school when he has to worry about his meal and whether he will live to become an adult. How can you encourage him to go to school when he can stay at home and scam? Make money to feed his family and buy guns to protect his property? The means define the ends!!Most young ghetto men will tell you than their lives is just means to an ends. They do not have a future so they live in the now and pray that this moment last forever.

"One Love: Jamaican Blogger Tag"

I was going through the Jamaican community of Bloggers and discovered this on many of the Blog Sites `

THE RULES FOR THIS TAG:

-Title your post “One Love: Jamaican Blogger Tag”
-Link back to the blogger who tagged you ( you may add a brief definition of what a tag is if you for the benefit of your readers)
-Copy and paste the rules at the beginning of your tag.
-Copy and paste the questions as well so readers know what’s going on.
-Answer the questions (No duh!)
-Tag seven other (untagged) Jamaican bloggers to continue the trend. Kinda forces you to make friends, no?

The questions are as follows:

1.Why did you give your blog its name?

Haha actually I got the name from a Guy i used to date . Kudos to Doctor Rohan Mullings for that name (such a smart ass). I wanted to write about how i was feeling at the time, I had fallen rather sickeningly in love with some random guy and writing was a form of therapy for what i was going through and when other women started emailing me about their relationship issues. I decided that I might want to do this not for me but for other women too.


2. Why did you start blogging and why do you blog now?

Because it offered me a platform to say what I wanna without having to censor my writings and also gain audiences for the books I published.Blogging is my life. I started out as an aperture for venting my feelings and it has morphed into a podium where i can pontificate my ideas and perspectives upon my audiences. I think writing has always been apart of me i mean, you do not come second place in Jamaica in CAPE literatures IN ENGLISH FOR NOTHING.

3. Do you think being Jamaican influences your blogging style?

Yes it does. I mean I have lived in Jamaica, all my life and its culture intrigues me at times and some other times, I wanna run away and not come back here at some of the antiquated beliefs that so many Jamaicans have. It is a unique kind of place with a complex set of people bonded by similar historical and social elements.

4. What do you think about the increase in Bloggers in Jamaica?

It is a good look, it means that people are thinking and writing and I am glad that so many of us who do not have a platform like a local newspaper where we can share our ideologies are afforded opportunities to express themselves. I have been reading other blogs by Jamaicans and I am impressed by what I have encountered and some of the stories that are out there.

5. What is your favourite thing about being Jamaican?

I like the creativity of our people and if most of us were afforded the opportunity to express our myriad of talents then that would be a move forward towards the progression of our society. Most Jamaicans are blunt and I think it is good that my Jamaican parents don't grow cowards as I observed in some other cultures. I mean children are taught from your young that this world is a cruel, evil place. Parents do not really sugar coat reality in Jamaica. What you see is what you get.


6. Ackee and saltfish or “ (mackerel) run down”?

Definitely a ackee and salt thing. me love it with the white rice and everything else. I love tin mackerel if a that you a ask and the mackerel with the ackee and some pumpkin rice. yeah a me that.

7.Stew peas or stew chicken?

Haha i love stew but i love stew chicken, with a little pepper and some ketchup with a little sugar in the gravy...old time style yuh know.

8. Tastee Patties, Juici Beef Patties or Mother’s?

JUici beef my thing deh especially the cheese patty. lick lick lick

9. Pantucky or KFC?

DWL. This is a hard one, love my jerk chicken and yes the occasional Kingston fowl coop. but Jerk chicken with roast breadfruit or a piece a bread is definitely more finger lickin than kfc because i hate all that fry food in one sitting but love kfc still.



10. What do you hope to be the future of blogging in Jamaica?

With the advent of the Jamaicablogawards i think that blogging has a great future in Jamaica, moreso as i said before that this coming generation is committed to social media and will be turning to the internet for information on their culture either or recreation or scholastic studies. We the blogosphere are here to fill that gap by providing content that is credulous, witty, educational and engaging for this new computer/reader generation that is coming up.

Tag:
Battymatilda
Corve Dacosta
Perceptual Post
EBFellowship is on twitter @place2belong
Javed Jaghai is on twitter @Chatimout
Jaevion Nelsons
MooreMayhem - Carla Moore
- See more at: http://dmarcuswilliams.blogspot.com/