About Me
This blog is about all the interesting stuff I come across, as I do my job which is as a journalist , pursue my interests, talk to my contacts mainly based in Kingston Jamaica. It will mostly feature news articles and stories I come across on people, politics and current affairs as they relate to people living and working in Jamaica but probably of interest to people outside the island. I am now based in London after living and working in Kingston as a journalist. I love dancehall and reggae so you may see info about artists like Movado, Vybz Kartel, Jah Cure and Tanya Stephens.
you can email me direct – mario239303 at aol dot com
DISCLAIMER : The views and opinions expressed in this blog are my own personal opinions and in no way reflect the views or opinions of my employer.
this is a website where i am learning about blogging – teaching myself practical tricks about putting in links and embedding video and adding pix all the little extras that make a blog worth looking at
Ah, but it’s the words that make a blog worth reading……………..
great blog, keep up the good posts!
Hello. Grateful for the blog. Always nice to run into a few online about my Jamaica. Always great to share thoughts and ideas and I always have to start out by commending those who do cuz I still have not managed to do so myself. I would like to follow your blog but I have to first ask the meaning of the title “jamaica salt”. In my Jamaica, when you put the salt as an adjective it does not usually mean you add flavour. I tends to mean “nutten nah gwaan fi yuh” or “pure bad luck a fallow yuh”. Its usually not a positive vibration.
o it disturbs me deeply because my thinking is that a blog should discuss the realities but when i look at your TAGS and the title of your Recent Posts there is no positive vibration, not one. So i am tempted to think I have interpreted you rightly. I might not have read all your posts but why a blog to seemingly highlight all whats going very wrong…we have the newspapers for that. blogs i thought were an avenue to discuss ideas and thoughts to turn things around. Have I misinterpreted your intent?
hi Jeanette – thanks for your comment, the name comes from the meaning Salt as to be broke, empty-handed, low on funds or food, as in “tings salt” or “i’ salt”. It felt right to me as opposed to the opposing image of Jamaica’s sandy beaches, to interpret that as salt rather than paradise – not adding a postive vibration you’re right – but rather that things are not right – there is poverty and hunger.
I guess i’m pretty cynical, i write what i think is important to talk about – that’s not all good I admit, but i’m very open to discussing ideas to turn things around. x
Hey Nina. I respect the reply, the honesty and the meaning. I did forget that alternate meaning and its not as bad as what i was thinking. I know, there is an abundance of stuff to be cynical about, not a soul coulda blame you. Call me an idealist but I happen to believe that we can change things around. I heard a talk today and this guy is an author who was imprisoned and tortured by his govt in Nigeria couple years ago. He said “What I’ve come to learn is that the world is never saved in grand messianic gestures but in the simple accumulation of gentle, soft, almost invisible acts of compassion. Every day acts of compassion.”
You might say ahh Jeanette a cynic has no use for such poetry, its fluff. Well that system that imprisoned him is no longer in existence Nina and what did it started with those gestures. I’ve read your stuff girl…come on how can you not think you are not a tool to fight this poverty and this hunger. And i happen to believe as you said that you write what is important to talk about but it cannot remain just talk. How do we move what you are doing here out of the blog and into the fight against that poverty in a very real and meaning full way. Talking about this is easy, how about we take up the challenge on poverty and hunger? Lets talk some more. X
aah jeanette you’re a do-er i agree with u tho
Hi, Nina. You say you are now based in London and lived/worked in Kingston. I guess you grew up in Jamaica, or no? Just curious.
hi nicola – just saw ur comment sorry for delay – i did not grow up in JA i was born in the UK xx
Interesting blog posts. Keep writing.
Is this the reason why Champions in Action was canceled in Toronto? It is rumored that is has a lot to do with gays… but I thinks its politics… I have no idea about TG been a country girl all my life… but it is sad for one person to have all that power over an island, and even more so for America to decide who lives and who dies..
could be nishka
Interesting that you choose to blog about Jamaica, and not your homeland.Here is something that should interest you AND YOUR FELLOW BRITISH CITIZENS.”British police arrest people ‘just for the DNA’
More than three-quarters of young black men are on system”
STOP WATCH THE TAP WHILE THE BONG A LEAK
yes i know yardie the stats are terrible – also black men in mental health system in uk – also bad stats x
Hello, It’s a nice blog you have going here. Is there an email address I can contact you for some inquiries about your blog?
hi toni – thanks – i’ve added my email address to this page x
Nice blog I will be back to visit many time as I have a blog concering the U.S., the Caribbean and the Americas in general. Come check me out!
hi – i had a look at your blog, thanks I’m doing an update story on buju
Cool, can’t wait to read the Buju update. I’m finding is difficult to get new information about the case.
as you probably have seen he appeared in court again in Tampa http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/criminal/reggae-artist-buju-banton-pleads-not-guilty-to-drug-charges/1063800
Teaching myself blogging too, found this link since you have the flickr photos and many of your readers click through to my images and leave a blog / stats trail
This is just great. I am a big dancehall fan. Grew up listening to the music and have visited JA twice. Big up.
Wow, is there anything positive going on in Jamaica? I guess cynicism is one thing but negativity is a whole other!Why dont you blog about the UK??? children go missing,people pretend to be dead to get insurance money,knife crime in london, terrorist breeding ground…I could go on and on…not enough negativity to blog about the uk, huh??
my work in the uk covers all that stuff travellergirl, i do not deny shit happens all around the world. This blog is an outlet for all the stories my contacts are telling me about and stuff that i cover when i’m out there. also – it’s not all negative! thanks for ur comment
Nina,
Thank you for your blog. It has some very interesting postings, I’ve read it with quite some curiosity and definitely with interest. There is some info here i never really looked into before.
Traveler girl and Yardie, you make your point, and I understand that u miss out on a side of JA but u seem a little offended. TOut of polite interest, is it that u feel news postings about negative issues are making JA look like a bad place – like it is a bit of country bashing?
If I may share, I was very charmed by your country, mostly by the people i met, the culture, creativity and energy u guy’s have up there. You have a lot to be proud of.
I appreciate this blog because -as I left with a liking for Jamaica, I also like to keep up to date about what happens. As with friends I want to hear both bad and good things going on. A difference is that good things need be enjoyed, bad things call for action. Media is a very nice way to communicate what is going on and mobilize people. And there are blogs that post on ‘positive only’ to.
However, with regards to referring to trouble in GB.. I don’t see how it makes much of a difference whether this or any journalist reports on JA or GB or any other country. I dont think you need to be born and raised in a country to write about a place or share information made by other (intern)nationals.
If the writer was born and raised in JA would it give a different meaning to the messages posted on this website? If a Jamaican (or any other national) were to migrate to the UK or any other country, and start a blog raising issues in the country- you wouldn’t do so unless the country has touched or moved you in some way. That is how i see it. I write this because I think the writer deserves a little more slack here.
I’ve heard foreigners discuss bad situation in my country (NL) as well. No need to take offense I think, that is not the intent. Not at all.
So let’s keep the discussion up – internet is global.
Take care y’all & PEACE
zaza – thanks so much for your comment, i feel boosted!
love the blog. nice to read about other cultures.
an aa from a aa/caribbean/hispanic spot in md
I luv ur blog! Very informative!
HI MY NAME IS CHELLY, IM TRYING TO GET IN TOUCH WITH BEENIE MAN. I THINK HE IS A VERY TALENTED SONGWRITER AND PRODUCER. I NEED HIM TO HELP ME WITH MY MUSIC CAREER. THIS IS MY DREAM AND I NEED HELP. PLEASE CONTACT ME AT CHELLYPULLEY5@YAHOO.COM IF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION ON HOW TO GET IN CONTACT WITH BEENIEMAN.
THANKS!
CHELLY
if ur in JA you should just try and find him at one of his shows
You have your Jamaica and I have mine……
You have your Jamaica with its dilemmas,
I have my Jamaica with its beauty.
You have your Jamaica with all its conflicts that rage there
I have my Jamaica with all the dreams that live there
You have your Jamaica and you accept it,
I have my Jamaica and I accept nothing less than peace, love and unity
Your Jamaica is a political knot which the years attempt to untie.
My Jamaica is made up of hills which rise with great presence and magnificence towards the deep blue sky.
Your Jamaica is an international problem beset with the shadows of night
My Jamaica is made up of silent and mysterious valleys, whose slopes gather together the sounds of bells and the tinkling of streams, the running of the rivers and the roaring of the sea.
Your Jamaica is a tilting ground where ‘Dons’ from the West struggle with others from the South.
My Jamaica is a winged prayer which hovers on the morning with the mists and flies away at evening with the setting of the sun.
Your Jamaica is a chessboard set between religious and political leaders
My Jamaica is a temple which I visit within my spirit when my eyes weary of the face of this civilisation which advances on greed.
Your Jamaica thrives on violence, greed and guns
My Jamaica is a distant memory, an ardent desire and a nostalgic word whispered in the ear of the Universe.
Your Jamaica is a land of ‘garrisons’ and ‘parties’, speeches and disputes
My Jamaica is made up of children who strive to climb the rocks of opposition and run with the streams of life.
Your Jamaica is no more than deceit and hypocrisy concealed by mannerisms and playacting.
My Jamaica is simple naked truth as it’s people accept their inborn knowledge in the mysteries of life, the simplicity of truth and love.
And, what of the children of your Jamaica,
They are those who are unaware of famine unless it robs their pocket.
And if they meet a hungry spirit they will laugh at him and avoid him, treating him as of no worth.
Who among them would represent the power of Jamaica’s hills, the nobility of their heights, the crystal of their waters, the fragrances of their air?
Who among them could say ‘When I die, I shall have left my country slightly better than it was at my birth’.
Who would dare to say ‘Indeed my life was a drop of blood in the veins of Jamaica or a smile on Jamaica’s lips’.
Do they deign to believe that when they pray, the upper air absorbs their shadows of hate, indifference, destruction, death and corruption?
Well let me show you the children of my Jamaica………..
They are those who trusting in Almighty God are the tillers of soil,
They are those men who harvest the crops, whose families gather it up in armfuls.
They are those who sell by the roadside their crops and their wares
Who remember a time when my Jamaica was so.
Their pride is in compassion, peace and the triumph of good,
Their ethics, morals and love overriding any need for ‘power’
They are those whose values and lives are tied to the seasons and to nurturing each other
To whom learning is a valued joy unlimited.
They are those who stay and they try, and try, and try, and try ………………
Adapted from Khalil Gibran’s ‘You have your Lebanon and I have mine’
Moira Morgan 27th August 2004 10.45p.m.
This weh mih jus’ read from Moira (posted Dec 28,’10) ah dih boss..!
Jamaica, Land We Love, yuh hear., ur words on us not lost,
You keep the fire burning mi dear.
We need this higher learning, ah swear!
So I’ll offer some positive spin on this here post..
I have thoroughly enjoyed your last post. Its too ‘impactful’ not to be shared. I’d like to repost with the credits to Moira Morgan of course and the link to your blog with it. Would that be okay with you.
yes sure jeanette no problem