Stories about Jamaica from January, 2007
Jamaica: Patties
Stunner offers a crash course in Jamaican patties.
Jamaica, St. Lucia, Barbados: Post-independence
Geoffrey Philp takes on the subject of post-Independence literature in the Caribbean, noting the particular significance of the work of poets Kamau Braithwaite, Derek Walcott and Mervyn Morris.
Jamaica: Saved by The Cure
In the summer of 1987, Jamaican writer Marlon James is saved by The Cure: “I don’t remember 1987 by any sequence of days and dates; I remember it by breaths I lost, gasping at “Just Like Heaven.” I can’t recall any major events but I do remember the sad drum...
Jamaica, Colombia: Identity etc
In response to some questions posed to him in December, Jamaican writer Geoffrey Philp writes an open letter recounting a visit to a Colombian restaurant in Florida with his (part-Colombian) family: “Of course, I’ve chosen to blog about it and this is one way about talking about your questions, which...
Jamaica: Political advice from Lifehacker
B.art hacks an article from the personal productivity blog Lifehacker about ways to become politically involved to make it relevant to a Jamaican audience.
Jamaica: Thoughts on MLK Day
Jamaican Leon Robinson presents his thoughts on Martin Luther King Day (observed on January 15th in the US): “Though Martin Luther King Day is an American celebration, I think blacks everywhere should celebrate it, as we are one race, and a victory for one is a victory for all.“
Jamaica: 30 years on, critique still holds water
The latest installment in Geoffrey Philp's “In My Own Words” series, which focuses on Caribbean writers, is a critique of the Caribbean's failure to give recognition to the arts written 30 years ago by Jamaican poet/playwright/screenwriter/journalist Olivier Stephenson. Geoffrey kicks off the comments with the words: “Although it’s sad that...
Jamaica: New year crime spree
Jamaica experiences a spate of murders just as the new year begins, six of the victims police officers. Leon is outraged that the government seems more concerned about solving the crime problem for the sake of protecting the country's tourist industry than for the well-being of its citizens, and expresses...
Jamaica: “Dem too tief”
Francis Wade looks for the rationale behind what he perceives to be a tendency among Caribbean consumers to “when confronted with what seems to be an unreasonable price, . . . .claim that the person selling it is a thief.”
Barbados, Jamaica: Two ways of reporting
Barbados Free Press compares newspaper reports from a Jamaican and Barbadian newspaper of an incident in which a young Barbadian man allegedly stabbed a young Jamaican man to death during an argument in Jamaica. The two young men are both sons of prominent Caribbean citizens.
Jamaica: Farewell, Charles Hyatt
Leon pays tribute to the Jamaican actor and comedian Charles Hyatt, who died on January 1. Hyatt appeared in several films, including Cool Runnings, The Mighty Quinn and Club Paradise.
Jamaica: Two landfills
Ria Bacon reports that two landfills in Jamaica have been making the news lately, one for having been the dumping site for the bodies of a pair of murder victims, the other for enveloping parts of Kingston in a miasma of débris-scented smoke.
Jamaica: Earning a quick dollar in the ghetto makeover
Ria Bacon photographed these young women in December 2006 on Barbican Road in Kingston, Jamaica. As she explains on her blog: In the week before Christmas, many of the poorer areas of Kingston get a quick makeover, as hundreds of local residents hack at overgrown pavements and daub the kerbs...
Jamaica, Trinidad: Soca downloads?
Francis Wade has been listening to the latest soca tunes being released out of Trinidad for the Carnival season, but regrets that a way of legally downloading them as mp3s is yet to exist.
Jamaica: Reading, writing & Absurdistan
“Writers who do not read have no right to write,” states Jamaican novelist Marlon James, in his meditation on reading and writing-cum-review of the novel Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart.
