From: mcbean@vax.oxford.ac.uk
Newsgroups: soc.culture.caribbean
Subject: Re: Jamaica gone to perdition!
Date: 25 Jan 93 21:08:18 GMT
Organization: Oxford University VAX 6620

In article <1993Jan21.185803.1@auvax1.adelphi.edu>, richard@auvax1.adelphi.edu writes:
> Does anybody want to talk about the downfall of Jamaica?  Let's get it ON!
> I saw a lot of young underage boys doing and talking about things I never even
> knew existed till I was in my late teens.  I saw faces and bodies burned and
> disfigured by acid and blades, I saw young girls living with old men (and wives
> thus loosing husbands), I saw uptowners acting like downtowners, and on and on.
> It was nothing like last christmas.  My mouth was constantly gaping as I was

I must say Richard, there have always been underage boys like this.  They used
to know to "keep their place " in the Kingston ghettoes, but now they no longer
keep away from uptown.  Acid and blades are nothing new, and the boops, sugar
daddy, brinks syndrome have always been there.  I don't know what you mean by
uptowners acting like downtowners; Sounds like some petty class discrimination
to me!

> dumbfounded by one surprise after another. On the good tip there were
> multitudes of fine looking ladies that might lead one to tear up a return
> ticket, but they showed little discrimination in choosing their mates. From
> cool to idiotic, all had a girl or two as long as he could play the role of
> brinks ( you know - to roll out a wad of hundred dollar bills) and buy two
> hundred dollar pizzas and three hundred dollar Burger King meals.  The shit hit 

As they say money talks bullshit walks!  This is nothing new... men with money
get the girls (anywhere..)

> the fan though when I saw open color discrimination used against me and others
> of darker persuasion at a local nightclub.  Every day in the news was another

Please tell me the name of this club so I can go cause a major incident there!

> tale of corruption, embezzlement, murder, etc, etc.  Hustling is the rule of
> the day, and a walk through a supermarket is a sure date with depression.  You

Crime is a problem (always has been) and our supermarkets have not been
well-stocked (by North American standards) since the 70s.

> cannot even drive around at night withought fearing that operation ARDENT will
> suddenly pop up and leave you possibly incarcerated for the night.  Then there
> is the police brutality against the 'nobodies', the persons who don't have
> big money and therefore no rights. Eighteen men were placed in a brick cell
> made to hold about five after being jailed without explanation.  Morning came
> and three of them were stone dead.  The survivors told tales of suffocation, 
> having to lick the sweat off the brick walls and each other to quench burning
> thirst, of vomiting and open defacation in stifling heat, of being packed so 
> tight as to be rendered immobile in complete darkness with no fresh air 
> whatsoever. An inspector when interviewed stated that the cell could hold 'up 
> to twelve men quite comfortably'. 

That was a said and despicable incident.  But remember the eradication squad of
the 80s?

> There is a whole lot more I could add, stories and events that shocked the
> daylights out of me, but I think you get the idea.  For the first time in my
> life I have to admit to myself that I do not wish to return to my homeland, not
> the way it is now.  You have to be there to understand what I mean, as I know
> what I am saying may piss some of you off, but the two weeks I spent were two
> too many.  I am afraid that Jamaica is slowly becoming a little Haiti without
> the extreme politics.  It is also becoming difficult to distinguish the
> Jamaicans from the New Yorkers or the Brixtonites.  Pram city also rules (ie
> nuff pregnant women).  What will become of the land?  I think that that recent

How do you know that these women are not in a stable relationship? Please don't
judge unless you know the facts!

> shake up may be God's warning.  He took Port Royal before, and he may take
> Kingston too.  What thinkest Thou?  

I think that the scales have fallen off your eyes and you have only now begun
to see the other side of Jamaica which has always existed, but which the uptown
denizens of the suburbs like to pretend never existed.

Now that the monsters (politically inspired and created) no longer destroys
only those unfortunate enough to live beside them (the people of the ghettoes)
but have now begun to attack uptown, there is this cry of horror.

Also it seems you have gone to the supermarket at last, otherwise I can't
understand your comment.  Scandals are now given a public hearing which is
good.  How many people know that our high comission in London was sold in the
80's for #18 million only to be resold days later for #90 million?  Life was
never the idyllic jaunt you're implying my friend, and I'm terribly
disappointed by your obviously derogatory class-concious comments (I'd be happy
to find out that I've misinterpreted you)

As one yardie who is returning, I have faith and optimism in my country.

> 
>  
> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> Richard L. Dennison               -\--/-  Internet: richard@auvax1.adelphi.edu
> President, Caribbean Club        |  \/  | Fone:(516)352-1926 Fax:(516)877-3296
> Chairman, Afrikan Concerns Assn  |  /\  | Caribbean Cultural Awareness Club
> Editor In Chief, AFRIKA UNBOUND!  -/--\-  Adelphi U., Garden City, N.Y. 11530
> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

McBean

Nah go a foreign fi go tun shoe-shine,
Prefer do some hustling on the frontline.
         - Junior Reid
Newsgroups: soc.culture.caribbean