Archive for the ‘jamaica’ Tag
Snoop Lion
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: dogg, jamaica, reincarnated, snoop, snoop lion
Leave a Comment I watched the documentary film – Snoop Dogg’s reincarnation from rapper to reggae in Jamaica, which was released in the UK this week. It was fantastic, gave me few laughs – like when they get the big bushes of ganja out and start smoking on some big ass chalice and Snoop’s cousin putting his blunt in the oven to cook it like a sausage. It’s fascinating when Snoop gets onto talking intimately about his time at Death Row and being at Tupac’s bedside a the time of his death. It’s sad when you understand his grief over the death of Nate Dogg. The music in it is excellent and you get a real insight into the whole process with Diplo at the helm. This documentary -maker Andy Capper, a 40 year old white guy from Liverpool is just amazing, hats off to him and his talent. Go watch it!
The idle youth and opportunity
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: economy, jamaica, jobs, opportunities, unemployment, young, youth
Leave a Comment As seems the case all over the world, young people who have nothing to do and have very few or no opportunities to get jobs or realise their potential is not only terrible to witness right now but is also storing up problems for the future. A report in the Jamaica Observer made this all to clear. It’s about a 16 year old boy called Tajay Reid who was well known in his community as both bright and intelligent. His mum could not afford to keep him in school after 16 and he inevitably had nothing to do. It’s a familiar tale, he ended up involved in robbing a house and was brutally killed in the process. The headline for the piece is hugely apt. It is a tragedy. But why does it continue to happen?
Photo courtesy of Coalition for Jamaica
With the economy in such dire circumstances, heavily indebted and with everything cripplingly expensive due to the high cost of imports, it might be time for Jamaica to consider some radical policy options. The only really lucrative farming going on at the moment seems to be growing ganja. If growing food and transporting it to markets were made profitable, this would not only provide employment but also reduce reliance on food imports. But it requires a change in demand and ethos and real committment in agriculture by a weak government. Here are some other ideas. You’re welcome to add your own.
I am mainly listening to …
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: album, damien marley, jamaica, set up shop
Leave a Comment the new Marley et al album …
Kartel’s career from prison
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: career, jamaica, kartel, prison, vybz
Comments (3) Vybz Kartel is not recording any songs in prison in case you were wondering as there seems to be a few new songs circulating the airwaves.
This is the statement from his PR people.
Adidjahiem Records would like to make it clear, that Adidja ‘Vybz Kartel’ Palmer has not recorded any material since his arrest in 2011. Any songs containing material from Vybz Kartel that were released after his arrest, were recorded by the artist in previous years.
Various songs containing material from Vybz Kartel have surfaced since his arrest, including a collaboration with Busta Rhymes and a song titled “Back to Life,” which have sparked rumors that the artist has been recording at the Horizon Adult Remand Centre. Adidjahiem Records would like to make it explicitly clear that both songs were recorded prior to his arrest. The single “Wine and Go Down” by Busta Rhymes ft. Vybz Kartel was recorded at Donovan ‘Don Corleon’ Bennett’s studio in 2010 in a session that was broadcast live on ustream. The lyrics contained in “Back to Life” were also recorded in 2010.
“The lyrics from “Back to Life,” that was released by U.I.M. Records, were recorded by Adidjahiem Records during the Dudus extradition – the original title was “Me Waan Go Home,” says Elvis Redwood of So Unique Records, who was an in-house engineer for Adidjahiem Records at the time. “Those same lyrics were re-used on a different track to create “Back to Life.”
Source: One876Entertainment
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 …
