How Marijuana can benefit the Jamaican Economy

I have been following the gleaner articles on the benefits of legalising Ganja in Jamaica as a boost to our economy as the plant that rastafarians use as a sacrament is widely considered to have superlative medicinal properties.

There are people on the ground who claim that Marijuana is legalised then it prices will go down but I think it would boost our farming sector which for the most part is largely only marginally exploited for revenue.

Jamaicans already have a passion for Farming Ganja and may would pool with investors to mass produce it for medical experiments and treatments.

Legalising Ganja will not drive its price down but it will become a viable respectable commodity instead of a contraband. The medicinal properties of the cannabis will make it a superior plant to be agricultured and exported at fair price.

This video illustrates some of the remarkable properties of the Marijuana plant and why Jamaica should legalise Marijuana.

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.

Conflict Resolution to fight Crime in Jamaica

I was watching the news last night where a family member was murdered because she controlled a family house and there was an ongoing dispute over it. I think one of the biggest catalyst for crime and violence is domestic disputes and until we can find effective ways to resolve our issues than resorting to murder then we will never have a peaceful jamaica. As a youth politician I believe that we need a rigorous conflict resolution programme that engages our community and we need mediators who can help to settle disputes before they escalate into body bags and funerals.




We have to build community programmes and outreach centres where mediators are placed within communities that have several flare up of intermittent violence to assist in helping citizens alleviate some of the disparities and frictions that often arises during their day to day associations.

People in Jamaica are not taught to apologise. This is a central issue within our society where people refuse to admit and acquiesce whenever they are wrong . We need an overhaul of our morality continuum. I heard that the minister of education, The Honourable Ronny Thwaites purported that a tolerance subject be added to the school curriculum.

I believe that our school needs an ethics class where children are encourage from youth to be tolerant of people, to understand that someone's opinion will differ from yours as people have divergent views and different experiences. People who do not conform to your beliefs should not be ostracised, murdered or maimed because you are offended. Children are encourage to always seek mediation instead of "chucking" violence whenever you and someone have a misunderstanding. We must emphasize the value of human life and relay the notion that murdering someone does not solved any problem in hindsight, it creates more violence such as reprisals etc.

We must also encourage our children in this curriculum to learn that walking away does not mean you are coward and even so cowards will always live to see another day. We should teach them also that sometimes the only way out is to stand up for what you believe in. Do not let anyone cower you into fear and submission by duress. We only submit to people that we respect and value their existence because it complements our humanity.


We need to rebuild our trust in the police force. Crime and Violence escalates because people with knowledge of criminal activities and perpetrators are afraid to give information to the police because most crime lords are alleged friends and allies of Police Officers. Until we get a collaborative effort between citizens and police officers we will not be able to eradicate the stench of criminality within our communities.


Politicians often think that crimes are committed on the basis of needs and wants. This maybe true but there is a growing dynamism within communities in Jamaica where the prevalence of guns and the accessibility
to guns for many young men has made assassins wealthy and parlours a very thriving business. There are bigger issues because in areas where Member of Parliaments and Councillors are absent than young men murdering and stealing. Where they are not role models, governance, young men easily become soldiers for the wrong set of people.


Our children especially our young men should be persuaded not to carry out people's dirty work. When I was a child we went to church every Sunday. We need to get back to our roots, Most of our values and morals are stemmed from our Christian principles we were taught as children. Our children need to go to bible school so that they can be morally shaped.

Our Brand Jamaica that we take for granted

I cannot fully emphasise how proud I
am of our brand Jamaica. I am always of the opinion that Jamaican is a good country with a lot of good people surrounded by a few idiots who cower the rest of us into fear forcing us to put up with their foolishness.

A Small island like ours has a cultural movement like reggae and dance hall music, our athletes and sportsmen are the most dominant within the Caribbean region and the world. We have won the Ms World title before, We have been spelling bee champion which means that we have brilliant people and beautiful people among us. We are creative people, people of laughter, humour and fun.Why can't we be committed to ensuring the betterment of our society.

I am proud of the people who represent us on the international front despite everything that others might have to say about Jamaicans. People say we are gay bashers, child molesters, we have the most corrupt political system and security forces but in all of that we have good people among us.


We have young people like myself who in face of death will readily stand up for the betterment of my people and society. I will never let brand Jamaica die or let selfish people who only care about themselves and not the communal benefits of our land we love, destroy the dreams of Marcus Garvey or Michael Manley.


Our young people are cut off from our roots. We need to stop watching TV and have the elders tell night time stories like my grandmother did when i was child where we are encourage to mimic Christian principles and core values. We should be committed to building our nation just as how we are moved with passion to eliminate and hurt our brothers and sisters when they offend us.

I say it over and over again that if good people were as militant as wicked people then we would have a better world but good people live in fear. They know too well that humility will be mistaken as weakness and that in today’s world if you are not "chucking badness" people think you are a softers.

We say what does not concern you that you should leave it alone but we know very well that soon enough the same stick that lick the black snake will lace the yellow one too and the same way a man deal with another man, he will hurt you in the same manner too.

Our Education Minister has called on us to teach tolerance in school but they must know that this will never be enough. We need a cultural overhaul. I see mothers telling their sons to curse neighbours simply because the neighbour insist that if they are going to pick mangoes, call and ask permission instead of sending stone missiles over the lady's yard.

I am not mistaken that these mothers create these monsters, who are menaces to society and then they cannot control them. Most if not all of the young men I grew up with are from good homes with good parents. I use many of them as examples of one can be accomplished when boys are exposed to education and proper values reinforced in their homes. I can attest that all the men who were my classmates in high school are successful young men who will never be caught in certain situations.

We see Beenie Man raising our flag high on an international cable station and I am force to dream again like Martin Luther King about our young boys and the future of our country. I would like for Beenie Man and others to at least become engaged in our education system, spending time in our communities to build back the unity and love that I believe we need to fight crime, violence and corruption.

What really happens when we die?

My latest encounter with death has opened my eyes to question what really happens when we lose consciousness. MY friend is death and I doubt that I will ever see him or encounter him in this lifetime again.

My grandmother is of the opinion that when we die that our souls remain in a state of limbo until the trumpet sounds on judgement day and we are called upon by god to admonish our many sins in this world.

I do not know what happens when I fall asleep. I am unconscious for a few hours and then I wake up fully conscious of who I am because my brain during this deep sleep phase is still oxygenated. I often think to myself that dying must me much like that. Losing consciousness permanent. I had a near death experience when I haemorrhaged after giving birth to my daughter and fainted. I do not even remember fainting. All I remembered was the voices of the doctors and nurses trying to save my life as I lost litres of blood. I kept thinking about the baby that I did not see and my child's father who was waiting patiently outside for me.



I kept slipping in and out of consciousness and I did not feel the stitches the doctor gave me for forth degree tears I had that the nurse miraculously missed. These lacerations during childbirth had cost me to loose too much blood rendering me unconscious, I did not remember much of what happened that afternoon and that night.


I Know that people from time to time question their existence and wonder what it is going to be like when you die. I believe it when scientist say that energy is not lost but merely transpose from one object or system to another. I was thinking about when I boil water and it evaporates. The water does not disappear, it becomes a gas and then it cools, condenses and falls back as rain. Life within itself is a big cycle.

Does this mean that I support reincarnation. If energy is not then what does that say about the energy that makes me who I am. The very elements of my personality and what composites me as a person. Where does that go when I die?
The information that we have on the incorporeal is purely supposition and conjectures formulated on reason and scientific extrapolations. No one who has died has ever come back to tell us what death feels like and the afterlife.
But this perception might be faulty because how can we account for psychic connections with our love ones in the afterlife or messages being send to us from our love ones who died.

Sometimes I look at my daughter and wondered where she got her personality. I see parts of her dad and her me in her personality but she has certain proclivities that I do not see in her father and I that makes me confident that those are inherent aspects of her "soul" personality.

My brain goes on these "meds" and thousands of thoughts and perceptions are conjured up during these meditation sessions that often leave me more befuddled about the missing parts of our existence.


Experts claim that consciousness grows and it shrinks but it never dies. Even so what really is death? Does the spirit leave the corporeal body because it is not longer able to hold it. Take for instance someone gets shot in the head several times yet remains alive but unconscious for over half an hour. Then take large gasps and die. Has the soul given up on the body that cannot contain it any more

Just thought about this on my lunch break...