Ash Wednesday and all that

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On Ash Wednesday 2010 Fun and Thrills had a real nice excursion to Reggae Falls in St. Thomas. Around 8 or 9 vehicles laden with bicycles and around 40 persons set off in the morning to the round about in Morant Bay where we jumped on our bicycles for the reasonably easy ride to the falls.They seem to be looking at the falls for some type of development there as the National Works Agency has installed a metre to measure the volume of water coming through. Those falls are not natural anyway but are the remnants of a hydro-electric plant which operated there many years ago.

We really a nice frolic swimming, dominoes, barbecuing, eating and drinking (even jankro batty was there!) while the young beauties sunned themselves. Incidentally, would you believe that Fatman and Chin You who we gave 9 love on New Year’s Day gave Stevie and I 6 love? Anyway thats dominoes. If you can give it you gotta be able to take it.

Around 1 pm when the rains started, everyone (who should have already been wet from swimming in the river!) grabbed up their belongings and prepared for the return journey. That’s when Stewie arrived with my domino table. Remind me never to give it to him to bring in the future! Anyway, dominoes is great on any table so we really did not need it.

Quite a number of persons rode back to the gas station (I didn't) and I understand that one of of Marlon's (Michael Chuck's son) friends had a slight spill on descending the hill into Seaforth, but he did not really get badly hurt.His type of spill is not iin the classic realm set by Barry!

Charles provided the excitement for the day by driving out through a deep section of the river (he takes the propaganda that these SUVs’ are all terrain vehicles, seriously I suppose) and getting the shock of feeling his packed vehicle sinking as he got stuck. Fun and Thrills has a number of super fit males however so in a matter of minutes they had him on his way.

The Sunday ride was as usual up to Maryland where Coy cooks that excellent breakfast. There used to be a famous ad in the olden days saying, "I will walk a mile for a camel." In my case, I am now riding uphill for two hours on a Sunday just for Coy's breakfast and it is worth it every time.

Incidentally, Howie, one of role models, took some garbage bags up with him so he could pick up the garbage strewn all around the swimming area. Great move.

As for me, I aint swimming in that cold water until summer comes and the weather warms up. But that did not stop Michelle and Orrel from combing the cold river for my body today. After the long ride up to Maryland, some of my old muscles were feeling a bit stiff so I started to walk to get them back in form. Ended up at the old spot where we used to go before the villagers dammed up the section where we now swim. When Michelle and Orrel arrived and saw my bicycle and did not see me in the water, Michelle said they started to look around to see if I had washed away.. Thankfully, I hadn’t!

For more photos at Reggae falls, go to;http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=187234&id=763366822&saved

Its Corruption!

After the article (below) about my Ash Wednesday run in with the police was published, several persons have gotten in touch with me to tell me that this was not an unusual case as some corrupt cops have been using the powers given to them by the state to conjure up all sorts of bogus charges against unsuspecting civilians. They then suggest that they can make these charges go away for a fee.

I have no idea what those police had in mind and since I am unable to contact the Complaints Department of the force which does not seem to have a working telephone and it would not be a stretch to suspect that they do not have email addresses either, I am going to send the complaint to the anti Corruption Unit under Justine Felis. Of course I still wont hold my breath in the expectation that even a slightest investigation will be done, but what the heck all I have to lose is the time needed so send an email!

To Serve and Protect?

After living in Jamaica for most of my long life, on only one occasion was I able to say something complimentary about the police, I suppose because I have been exposed to police officers in other jurisdictions, I have never accepted boorishness, crassness and belligerence as part and parcel of the thrust to "serve and protect."


The exception to which I referred above happened last year when I went to the Papine police station to report the death of a friend and was absolutely bowled over by the professionalism and politeness of the two cops on duty. So shocked was I that I felt forced to publicly comment on it several times. However, my latest encounter with two policemen on Ash Wednesday at 6.45 am , poignantly reminded me why I can never ever like, respect or trust those so-called officers of the law.


As arranged, I had picked up a young man in Barbican Square and was proceeding up Barbican Road when I saw a patrol car which I had glimpsed earlier, on the other side of the road, with its lights flashing. An officer made a gesture to me but I did not respond immediately as I couldn't believe that it was me they were trying to stop as i had done nothing,. The car then came up behind me and the siren blared so I stopped. Within seconds, a policeman was at the passenger window shouting to the young man beside me "Why yu move from behind the steering wheel when yu si wi?" It was with total astonishment and shock that I asked him what on earth he was talking about. He then shouted that he had seen me change places with the passenger and wanted to know why!


I actually thought I was in a movie since that this the only place I had ever seen the type of acrobatics necessary for a passenger and driver to change places in a moving car without crashing!. Shocked, we both denied that any such thing took place. When he turned to his colleague for him to confirm that what he was charging was true, I did detect that the other policeman was a bit reluctant before agreeing with him.


Realising that I could be in a precarious position, I immediately took out my phone and started to dial. That seemed to incense him even more as he shouted that I could always call the commissioner as he couldn't do anything about. Calmly I informed him hat I was calling my attorney for obviously this was a serious matter. On hearing this, he calmed slightly and mumbled that every time some people get stopped by the officer of the law "dem want bring lawyer into it." He then told me to produce my license and I did.


He looked at the license and as quickly as his surprise attack had been, so was his departure at which point I wrote down the license number of the vehicle, MPD 18. I spent the next few minutes trying to figure our what had just happened. Had this been some attempt at shakedown? Was supposed to be so frightened that I would produce some money? No it couldn't be, I decided for the usual approach when they are looking for rent or whatever, is to claim to be doing you a favor by not writing a ticket and expect a reward in return. Anyway, this approach has never worked with me as a I would rather rot in jail than bribe a cop!

Finally, I concluded that we must have just had an encounter with a heavily armed drunk man, mad man or a coke head. Now that is really frightening for I am not aware that the police force does any random testing on these heavily armed people who they send out daily to interact with the public? I suppose they simply dismiss the almost daily complaints by abused members of the public and the friends and relatives of those who they claim are killed or shot up by the police after attacking them with anything from a gun to a toothpick.

I am sending a complaint to the Police Complaints division but of course would never hold my breath in the expectation that this matter would ever be investigated, All l can say to the public is, beware when stopped by any member of this totally out -of -control organization.

Police Insecurity

According to an unsurprising revelation in the article entitled "Police guns used in murder" in the Observer, a high level anonymous source is reported as having said "We have identified a number of recycled weapons from the armoury and ballistics have shown that they were used to commit murders. I expected to see the article going on to say that the Observer reporter asked, When was this first discovered and what has been done about it" but this was not to be.

More interestingly, the article went on to report on the absolutely slack and unacceptable level of security at the armoury leaving us to speculate on why this is and who benefits from this deliberate policy to keep the armoury insecure ? For surely that level of insecurity in the police armoury in a country where there seems to be no shortage of guns and ammunition, could never be accidental?

Police Corruption

The shock being expressed throughout the country over the revelation of the latest police involvement in weapon's trafficking, will be another nine day wonder as usual. For as the "Star" reminded us yesterday, one of their investigative journalists went undercover some years ago and reported seeing a policeman actually selling a weapon, but the report was totally ignored by those with the power to investigate and put an end to such activity.

Further, the former commissioner of police Lucius Thomas himself was on radio some years ago, talking about the police's involvement in weapon trafficking. Why have we never seen any action taken which would indicate that he did anything about it?

Since then the Corruption's branch of the police has been actively reeling in small fish involved in petty corruption and Kingfish gets itself lots of publicity bringing in small caches of weapons and ammunition, while it is now obvious that the real racket is right under their noses. Could it be that every investigatory arm of the police is totally incompetent or is it that corruption is so entrenched that it took an "accident' for this major racket to be unearthed?
And don't tell me this major racket stops with a mere Sergeant.

The minister of security talks about pending anti gang legislation to tackle serious crime in the country, but daily it becomes more obvious that the biggest and most dangerous gangs in this country are operating out of the police force itself.

THE SIMPLE LIFE

The Rio Grande River is ever present

One of the best meals I have ever had in my life was Janga run dung and pumpkin turned cornmeal.

In fact, I am ashamed to say that I have heard that our Maroon caterers at Millbank in Portland, are still talking about how I invaded their outside kitchen to get some more of that delicious fare. But I just could not help myself.

This happened some time ago but I just have never been able to stop talking about the food. I did not receive that delicious meal on a platter however. In fact, I worked very hard for it. Hard but pleasant work. 

For it took us about three hours of riding uphill on some of the most impossible roads, to get there.

Let me make it clear up front however that our adventure group “Fun and Thrills” is not like the professional riders you see nattily dressed in their riding gear on the road from time to time. We ride mountain bikes and proceed quite slowly, stopping a lot to take photographs, drink in the beauty around us, get a quick swim or just snack away. 

That’s the fun in our name.

On this occasion, we were riding into the Rio Grande Valley, probably the closet thing to the mythical Garden of Eden. We had started out in Port Antonio and headed south to Fellowship, uphill all the way on a narrow, paved road full of corners which took us through pleasant little districts outside the town…..nice, brightly coloured, humble country homes with happy kids playing outside and lots of fruit trees in almost every yard.

At Fellowship we headed east and from there on, any idea we may have had about “good roads” evaporated abruptly. We were now in deep, rural, Maroon country, but by God, those mountains displaying every shade of green and covered with mist, the sound of the birds, the wild flowers and trees as well as the sound of the Rio Grande gushing over the stones and creating mini water fall’s all the way, brought a new level of the peace and serenity that most outsiders never get the opportunity to enjoy.

You know, it is quite common for us Jamaicans to be introduced to some spectacular parts of our countryside by foreigners and this excursion of ours was no different. For this route into the Blue and John Crow Mountain range was being introduced to us by Kimberly John, a Trinidadian environmentalist who has been doing a fantastic job among the maroons in Portland.

As we continued our challenging, upward journey through Windsor, Alligator Church and Ginger House, the number of small farmsteads became less visible but no doubt farmers were all around as was evidenced by the small lush banana plantations as well as fields of dasheen and coffee further up the mountain side. 

Fruit trees seem to grow wild throughout the entire valley too.

As we ascended, the sun became less visible, (thankfully, as riding in the blazing sun can be very challenging) and overcast conditions prevailed. All was well until just before we got to Comfort Castle where the road had been washed away and only a tiny path was left to cross over to the other side. So we had to dismount and gingerly push our way across, looking carefully and fearfully down into the deep ravine below.

Luckily for the residents of Comport Castle and Millbank , a couple of cars had been over on their side when the road washed away. Now all their goods and produce are transported to the edge of the breakaway, then taken by manpower over the narrow path then picked up by the vehicles on the other side. This has horribly isolated them and made things very expensive for the residents of Comfort Castle and Millbank who play a major role in feeding this nation. Hopefully by now, that situation has been corrected.

Comfort Castle is a pleasant village on the edge of the Blue and John Crow Mountain range and Millbank which is reputed to have the second highest rainfall in the world, didn’t disappoint as we got a thorough soaking at least four times before we actually got to our destination. Getting soaked was by no means unpleasant however for as the rains stopped, the sun reappeared drying us off quite quickly.
Millbank is the last village in the Portland section of the Blue and John Crow Mountains before you cross over into the St. Thomas section of that range. It is your normal, rural district with the usual shops, churches and bars.

Here, the temperature is cool and crisp and naturally is it is very damp and lush. While we were there, farmers were busy packing crocus bags of dasheen which they would take to the breakaway, to be taken up on the other side to feed the rest of Jamaica.

Most of the inhabitants in the Rio Grande Valley are loosely referred to as Moore Town Maroons.

Each Maroon village has a representative on the maroon council, the body responsible for the enforcement of the laws (the state deals with murder) and maintaining order and guess what, these villages boast extremely low crime rates. I wonder what they are doing right while the rest of Jamaica gets it terribly wrong?

I guess it all comes back to leading the simple life in a lush, beautiful, peaceful, environment.

Joan Williams is the writer/publisher of Tour Jamaica and the Original Dancehall Dictionary and can be contacted at; greatestj@hotmail.com

JAZZING IT UP

This turned out to be a wonderful weekend as we got together at Silver Sands to attend the Jazz festival, although for me it was a rocky start. For on reaching Mount Rosser on my way down, I ran into an accident and had to turn back to Ewarton to take the alternate route. As I left Ewarton, I got a puncture. Luckily, two nice young men changed the tire for me and advised me to go back to Ewarton to get it fixed as the bypass road was lonely and bad and there was no place along the way to fix a tire. I took their advice and all was well from there on, despite the terrible condition of the bypass road.


My brother, Bernie, his wife Judy and children Stephanie and Whitney as well as Stephanie's husband Sean, were all on board. I have not seen the kids since the wedding some two years ago, so it was really great being with them.

The venue for the festival was absolutely ideal. I hope it will be permanent but with Jamaica being in the dire financial straits that it is, I don’t see how, for this is really a sporting venue and if you start using the grounds for music festivals, they will be destroyed. But does the Ministry of Sports have the capacity to successfully market the venue for music and other forms of entertainment and forget the sporting aspect? I don’t know but as a taxpayer I am very concerned.

Anyway that aside (as if it’s a small point) as I said earlier, the venue was fantastic. For example, this was the first time I have been to the festival and not been faced with a traffic nightmare. This time it flowed perfectly for not only is the stadium far away from the crowded streets, but also, the parking space is humongous.

As for the grounds. You could actually wonder around freely without bumping into people left right a centre. I remember at the festival when Diana Ross was here and those in the back surged forward because they could not hear her, all exits were blocked and you had to wonder if there was an emergency if anyone would get out alive. Not here. Space galore although the promoters tell us that the crowds were bigger than usual.

I thoroughly enjoyed Machel Montano, the new energy god. ( Elephant Man, you have been outdone!)

Lady Saw (Marion Hall). was absolutely fantastic, throwing off her lady Saw image for the very sophisticated Marion Hall. She had the crowd eating out of her hands as she showed her versatility as an entertainer, interspersing her songs with lectures about relationships and even revealed her earnest yearning to have child. During the break she walked around and because there was a fertility specialist with us there,( Dr. Mulvaney), he grabbed her up and interviewed her extensively, promising to take on her case himself. Stephanie who is also heading to that area of medicine was also interested in her case. She graciously gave them her full attention, autographs and to their delight, took individual photos with every one. The family is definitely her number one groupie!
Gladys Knight was also fabulous keeping us on our feet with her numerous hits during her entire performance.

The only bad acts during the two nights I attended were Erika Badu and Third World. I was really disappointed with Third world which in my estimation is now totally washed up. Half the patrons left during their performance.


The entire weekend was wonderful although the sea was a bit rough and a mountain of seaweeds had washed in. C'est la vie, can't have it all!