Archive for the ‘jamaica’ Tag
A deadly police force
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: brutality, deaths, extra, jamaica, judicial, police, usa
Comments (1) Jamaican police will be given batons, handcuffs, pepper sprays and equipment belts for approximately 6,500 frontline officers, later this year by the USA.
It’s a donation that has an underlying message – try and do something about police brutality in Jamaica. Between 2000 and 2010 there have been more than 2,220 fatal shootings by the police, that’s over 200 deaths a year on average. 2010 was particularly bad after the attack on Tivoli Gardens where 40 people are alleged to have been victims of extra judicial killings over the course of 2 days in May.
Portia – Jamaica’s first female Prime Minister, again.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 2011, inauguration, jamaica, leader, miller, portia, Prime Minister, simpson
Comments (1) Portia Simpson Miller of the Peoples National Party takes her oath of office today, so I thought I’d write a few thoughts about her. She became Jamaica’s first female PM, officially in 2006 when she took over from PJ Patterson but this is the first time she has been elected into the job through popular mandate. She beat the Jamaica Labour Party’s Andrew Holness, the result winning 42 out of 63 seats on Dec 29th.
It’s not surprising she won after the debacle of the one term Bruce Golding JLP government.
The PNP have traditionally been a party representing the poor, she promises trust in the government – something that is needed more than anything. She hasn’t convinced me yet to be honest as she seemed distinctly quiet over the whole Dudus-Golding affair and she has been accused of not being smart enough to lead the country – I don’t think that matters really – Reagan and Bush ran the US remember! Here’s a profile of her which was broadcast in 2007 CLICK HERE.
The point is, she really needs to clean up politics by cutting off the links with the criminals, maybe it’s good to move away from the rich elite of Jamaica and the JLP, let’s hope she works to lift Jamaicans out of their poverty.
Life after Golding
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Bruce Golding, crawford, damion, garrison, jamaica, PM, politics, youth
Comments (1) Following Prime Minister Bruce Golding’s resignation announced 25th Sep, 2011 which was a long time coming, I’ve been thinking about if and when the political make up in Jamaica can ever change. If someone charismatic and inspiring were to step forward onto the scene – Jamaica’s Nelson Mandela or Gandhi – and it doesn’t have to be a man – someone who can take the country onto a new path.
Bruce Golding 2008 - 2011
First, let me just say a couple of things about the resignation. Any credibility that Golding may have had in making his exit speech, seem to ring hollow because it has taken so long to come about. Deafeningly loud calls for his resignation were being made way back last year, when it emerged that he knew about the contacting of a law form to lobby against the US extradition request for Christopher Coke – a notorious crime lord currently pleading guilty to drug and gun charges. Although Golding did offer his resignation at the time, it seemed a half hearted attempt to do so as his loyal party rejected the request, which he duly went along with. There is an air of suggestion that he could not cling onto power any longer.
All this after the ill fated decision to storm Tivoli Gardens in a fruitless search for the drug don Christopher Coke at the expense of so many lives, not to mention the huge damage to Jamaica’s international reputation which will continue to be tainted for a very very long time to come.
Golding came to power with the help of edward seaga – the man tainted by links between crime dons and politicians when he was in power and garrison politics first came to the fore when guns and violence were exchanged for votes. He comes from the Jamaican political elite – his father was in politics.
So where is the new blood or are we just going to see more of the same? People being groomed from the same stock with the correct links and access to power? Here are a couple of youth leaders in action, Damion Crawford and then there’s also Generation 2000 (G2K) president Delano Seiveright. Is there hope for anyone else to emerge from somewhere else entirely? What about someone from Tivoli gardens?
Police and guns in a club – Bounty Killer’s b’day party
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 2011, birthday, jamaica, june, killer, kingston, mavado. bounty, quad
Leave a Comment It happened at the Quad nightclub in new Kingston on Bounty Killer’s b’day. As Mavado arrives with his entourage, there’s a scuffle and armed police shoot his friend, who later dies in hospital. All in the presence of TV cameras.
All I have to add is did the police really deem it necessary to have a presence at this event? I think the club security would have been a better idea.
This is Mavado’s answer to the incident. He says the gun was “popped” with no provocation.
Coke Court date set
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 2011, crime, dudus, gardens, jamaica, june, tivoli
Comments (3) The trial of Christopher Dudus Coke will begin on September 12th 2011.
He’s been awaiting a date since he was arrested in June 2010 and then extradited to the US on drug and gun charges.
The main thing going on before that date is the motion filed by Dudus lawyers to throw out wiretap evidence, used in the extradition order against him. That would be pretty crucial in the case – his lawyers argue that it contravened Jamaican law to hand it over to the Americans.
But as Coke continues to be holed up inside a cell in the US, how are things on the outside in Tivoli Gardens. West Kingston?
The govt say they are dealing with crime with an ‘iron fist’ reporting 700 fewer murders over the last year. The police also say they are making significant inroads in efforts to eradicate gangs, dismantling 50 per cent of the 57 targeted since the New Year. Is it leading to safer streets and will it last I wonder?
Vybz Kartel’s new hairstyle
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: hair, jamaica, kartel, vybz. new, weave
Comments (1) The new style, longer so he can play with it …
Dudus aftermath – 1 year on
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 2011, aftermath, christopher, coke, dudus, gardens, jamaica, kingston, may, tivoli
Comments (3) Christopher Coke, aka Dudus has been in US custody on narcotics and firearms charges for nearly a year now and there is still no sign of a trial date. He made his 7th court appearance in Manhattan today – Tuesday May 10th, 2011. No-one’s talking to the press yet, but despite this, there’s already a book out about him, called ‘Jamaica’s First President’ , he was known locally as the Prezzie for short.
Zinc fencing photo by Benjamin Lozovsky
So what is going on in Tivoli gardens since his removal? At the time, there was much talk about the power vacuum that would be left behind in his wake, which would lead to more violence and gang warfare. I wrote this blog post about it around that time and also Kingston Mayor Desmond Mckenzie met with US Embassy officials, as detailed in a leaked wikileaks cable – read more about that here.
PM Golding on a wall
Meanwhile, the Jamaican JLP Bruce Golding government has stubbornly clung on to an illusion of power, through an enquiry into the Manatt Phelps and Phillips affair – which basically showed how the Golding govt were protecting Dudus from US extradition all along as they were telling the Jamaican people something else entirely. It led to an admission in Parliament that he had lied to them previously. Naturally, his reputation is shot to pieces, but he thinks he can claw it all back for the general election next year.
Judging by a useless opposition leader by the name of Portia Simpson miller, this is not beyond the realms of imagination.
Buju Guilty
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: banton, buju, cocaine, guilty, jamaica, prison, sentence, trial, verdict
Comments (2) well, it’s all over the news so perhaps all I need to do is provide some links here and here .
I was kind of surprised as my last post indicates, I thought things may have gone the other way after the last trial, but the audio and video evidence could not be overcome.
Now he faces a long stretch in prison, some say 20 years - given his last stretch inside before he was out on bail, prison life didn’t suit him as he complained about his treatment.
But this does not have to mean the end of his music, he managed to release his grammy award winning album whilst inside. He will have plenty of time to mull over lyrics and melodies, but he probably won’t feel like singing just yet.
Rent boys vs go-go girls
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: clubs, go-go, jamaica, kingston, night, rent, sex, trade
Leave a Comment I have been thinking about the stark differences between the male and female sex trades in Jamaica. The reason it has come up is this case, where police officers are alleged to have gang raped an ‘exotic dancer’ – a woman who dances in Jamaica’s many go-go clubs. To be a female sex worker in Jamaica is no joke and this crime highlights the lowly status and terrible risks these women face. They face rape, they’re really looked down on and there are many cases of young girls getting drawn in.
Kingston by night photo by panthony brown
Compared to some of the boys who work in the resorts, it’s just so different. I spoke to a guy who did this job in Montego Bay. He was young and good looking and he seemed to pick and choose the women he liked and from the impression he gave, he seemed to be enjoying himself – although perhaps this was not always true. He described nights going into womens’ bedrooms and finding them there naked. And after they left, he would ply them for ‘birthday presents’ gifts and wired money. So this was a long term venture which almost seemed to play with the womens’ feelings – using their guilt to keep him in the money.
But i guess there must be similarities too – risk of sexual disease and feelings of low self esteem sometimes.
Kartel and Cake Soap
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bleach, bleaching, cake, jamaica, january. 2011, kartel, lightening, skin, soap, vybz
Comments (2) What is the man doing?
Here’s the photo doing the rounds on the internet – Kartel looking so handsome in the good old days with the glowing skin and the after photo – after the skin bleaching. Comments I received on facebook included, “idiot” and “he now looks like a monster”. I think it’s just so sad and tells me that the guy is seriously losing his way. This is not what someone who loves and respects themselves does.
I actually really like the song though, been listening to that alot and also the counteraction song, has a good vibe to it.
He talks about it in this video – forward to 3’23
