Reggae reigns supreme

 In my book, the 1st Palm Beach Reggae and Arts Festival at Old School Square in Delray Beach was so successful, I hope it will become an annual affair.

 This after I only attended 1 of what is a 3 day affair (Friday to Sunday). 

Saturday night featured the dynamic Inner Circle band.

Despite driving to West Palm often, I had never been to Delray Beach before although having lived in nearby Tamarac for 10 years.

Barry (right) with one of his band members.

So have to big up my cuz Barry, (Colin), leader of the popular Tallawah Mento Band for not only telling me about the festival but also transporting me.😊

You know Jamaica has birthed so many fantastic musicians of every genre over the years that I can never stop feeling super proud to be a Jamaican.

Soaking up the fun with Caroline 

One of my top favorite dance bands in the 1980's was Inner Circle with the unstoppable Jacob Miller. I still get goose bumps remembering that terrible Sunday afternoon when he crashed around 3 pm and died on Hope Road.

For weeks every radio station was playing his monster hit "Dreadlocks nuh live inna tenament yard," as we mourned.

Although I collected many Inner Circle tapes and cd's over the years, I lost track of this dynamic band decades ago, thinking they had disbanded. (Pun intended😁).

Thanks to my cuz Barry, I learned this week  that not only were they still around but also, they had built a virtual musical empire in Miami. 

Naturally most of the original members are no longer around but last night's lead singer, Trevor 'skatta' Bonnick, and the fantastic musicians had us out of our seats for over an hour last night. Skatta belted out hit after hit

and would you believe he never took a break to even drink  water!

They were fantastic.

Carolyn in the groove

Inner Circle in action last night

Before Inner Circle came on, there were three earlier bands kicking off the entertainment at 6pm.

My next favorite was a latin band called Xpermento with members drawn from Argentina, Colombia Cuba Puerto Rica.

Xpermento in action

They delivered not only great latin music but also, good reggae and pop. I suspect we will be hearing a lot more about them.

Ojay and Sahara.

Two performers Ojay and Sahara, are children of the great reggae artist Ernie Smith. They performed with 'The Resolvers'. Ojay has a wonderful voice like his father and Sahara is full of stage vibes.

The first band that got things moving was Yvan& Legal Roots. They were pretty good too.

A small crowd kicked off with them at 6 pm, but the crowd blossomed as things proceeded.

It was a great afternoon and hopefully this will really become an annual affair.

On

Congratulations and thanks to Atty. Lloyd Stanbury for conceptualizing and producing this excellent event👍.

Inner Circle's amazing upcoming world tour!

The cultural mix

 I love Tamarac. It's such a fun city with a warm culture.

One Love is the unofficial Jamaican motto.

Today we seniors had a program called 'the cultural mix' where we celebrated our diverse cultures using food, fashion and dance.

It sure was fun.

Norma and I 

Jasmine

Edith

A variety of desserts

These are candle holders used in Hannukah

Jamaican flag big and bold

Ecuador flag

Venezuelan flags aplenty 

Joan, a super volunteer

Phyllis is 93 but rarely misses an event!

Eric

There was also a good selection of dishes from various countries, all brought by the attendees.

Curried chicken

Roti

Colombian potatoes?

Rice and peas

A Jamaican favorite, turned cornmeal aka polenta

Then it was time to demonstrate the dances from various countries..

Colombian rhythm.

         Puerto Ricans demonstrate their moves.

       Everyone got up for Bob Marley!

Exotic Latin moves.

A Honduran lady kept her flag throughout!

Maria from Ecuador sure knows her thing!

Yup. We have a wide representation of people from all over the world.

And it's peaceful coexistence.

Tamarac is in reality the city of your dreams.

An American nightmare

 It took an American entity to spoil what had been a great experience in Ghana and a wonderful two weeks with my daughter and granddaughter.

That entity is United airlines.

Their mis-steps were on the very last leg of this amazing journey 

After departing from Ghana 10 pm on the 27 th June and arriving at JFK airport on the afternoon of the 28 th, I had just one leg left on the long return journey.

 That was a flight from Newark airport to Fort Lauderdale.

That's when United Airlines screwed up everything. For after checking in and arriving at the departure gate, the announcement was made Flight Cancelled.

After waiting in a long line for United Airlines Customer service and learning from other irate passengers that their United flights to Florida had been disrupted from early morning, I became accepting on being told by the customer service representative that the disruptions were caused by weather conditions in Florida.

I later learned that this was a big lie though!

This was while I was traveling in the shuttle to a hotel and heard the news.

For the news on the radio was that United Airlines was having numerous cancellations during the busy holiday travel due to staff shortage and some internal problems.

You see, this is the American independence weekend and United has had cancellations on all their routes, not just Florida, due to internal problems.  

Nothing to do with weather.

These disruptions started yesterday.

So long story short, here I am suffering from jet lag at the Holiday Inn, in Newark Airport but without any luggage. Luckily I had hand luggage with essentials so hopefully will get out on the night of the 30th, which is the earliest flight I can get. (I was offered a flight via Missouri to Florida earlier that same day, and refused, so they put me in this night flight.)  I had even called Amtrak to see if I could even get a train home, but they are booked out for the holiday. 

I suppose I should be grateful for small mercies as  a lady going to Louisiana with her family was told she can't get out till Saturday and the news just said others are being told they can't get out till Monday 3rd July!

I am only happy that I have travel insurance through a reliable company which has come through for me in the past, so all the charges I a wracking up on my credit card will be repaid.

This is Allianz Insurance which paid my bill in full and without question when I collapsed some years ago in Colombia and had to be intravenously rehydrated. 

So now, I go nowhere without them! (Anyway, my experience is that the insurance sold by the airlines is nothing but a scam so have long stopped wasting money with them.)

Crooked United Airlines was not even offering anyone any form of compensation unless they asked.

 I insisted and  got 3 meal vouchers and a promise of 1 night maximum $100 refund for hotel stay, (they give you a list of the hotels they will 'contribute' to.) 

This is therefore where travel insurance will have to chip in, when my receipts are submitted.

Hopefully United will not cancel the flight on the 30th or lose my checked luggage😡.

Not holding my breath though.

Link: https://joan-myviews.blogspot.com/2023/06/time-for-fun.html 

So Entitled!

Is it because the USA has such powerful weapons why so may of its citizens all seem so entitled?

 This pervasive air of entitlement is constantly being massaged by the media too!

I am amazed by some recent pronouncements about how to deal with their latest drug of choice, Fentanyl. 

Yes, I get it, fentanyl overdose kills around 100,000 Americans each year.

But who is it that force feeds drugs to the American people?

I recall with great resentment the terrible days in my little island of Jamaica, when DEA agents would arrive in their planes and spray ganja (marijuana) fields, destroying farmer's vegetable and other crops in the process.

 For decades, some people in Jamaica had been enjoying their ganja and it never killed anyone. 

Then the Americans discovered it and it became a problem FOR JAMAICA!

 Now all over the world, the harmlessness of ganja is being recognized and its use is even being legitimized in state after state in the USA.

 Then they took on the Colombians.

 Colombian peasants had been chewing their cocoa leaves for decades, then someone discovered that it could be chemically altered to give young people a high.

Americans immediately took to it and it suddenly it became an international problem and they were all over Colombia spraying deadly herbicides.

 Now, the powerful USA is now contemplating….multiple bills to designate Mexican cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations” in order to broaden the actions that can be used against them."

That sounds ominous and naturally, President Lopez Obrador is not amused!

(Incidentally, Mexico is the USA's most important trading partner.)

 Look at this crazy bill introduced by Texas Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw, which would give authorization for the use of military force against Mexican cartels, similar to those approved for Iraq and Afghanistan!

 Are these people crazy.

 They must be, for if you keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, you must be!

 When is the USA going to recognize that it is, its people’s insatiable demand for mind-altering drugs which is the problem, so they need to deal with that, instead of using their powerful military, DEA etc to terrorize militarily weaker nations?

I forgot, they are all powerful so they are entitled to demand that weaker nations solve their problems!

As a matter of fact, other nations including China and Russia have superior weapons, but you don’t see them threatening others because of problems they have at home with their citizens' crazy desires!

Yes, they flex their muscles for territorial reasons and most people are appalled at these actions. So, when they do, the USA and the rest of the world usually join in the  condemnation.

However, the USA sees nothing wrong when they flex their well-armed muscles because of their own idiosyncrasies.

The insatiable demand for mind altering drugs is a unique American problem as is this entitlement they hold so dear.

American politicians and media need to recognize this and stop driving the public into a frenzy on the basis that other nations are supposed to solve their problems.

With their overabundance of serial killers, mass murderers and generation after generation of young people always wanting to have some new mind-altering drug, the USA is clearly a very dysfunctional society.

However, the age of entitlement is over.

They need to deal with their internal shortcomings rather than continuing to terrorize their poorly armed neighbors for the things their citizens crave.

 

Being quarantined is no fun

As a joke, on the 21st February 2020, I put a post on my Facebook page asking if anyone wanted a free cruise. I was absolutely shocked by the number of persons who replied yes, considering that the horror stories about people being quarantined on cruises ships and ports of call refusing them landing, had started to surface.

I don't think anyone in the world loves cruising more than I do. Or just travelling for that matter.

I got my first cruise when I was 14 years old and was so excited about the experience that the first job I applied for on leaving high school was to work on a cruise ship.

Thank god I never got the job for I learnt later in life that working on these floating hotels is no fun.

For the workers seem to work almost 24 hours per day. Also, they live in cramped quarters on the bottom of the ship and have to be nice to all sorts of assholes.

Not getting that job was probably my best luck in life for apart from the horrible conditions under which cruise ship employees work, lots of them pick up dangerous viruses.

But back to quarantines.

I am claustrophobic so being quarantined is a fate worse than death.

 I have been quarantined twice and thank god it was for short periods of time.

The first time was when I developed a fever after returning to Jamaica from vacation in Guyana. On that trip I did the exciting trek through the forest by minibus over to Brazil.

When I went to the doctor after developing a fever shortly after returning home, it created panic with the damn doctor who swore I had developed dengue, malaria or yellow fever, mosquito borne diseases that were no longer in Jamaica at that time.

That's when she said I must be quarantined in a hospital, public or private.

At least I could go on my balcony

 I had never heard about the process before so called a friend who was a GP, to find out what would happen if I refused to turn myself in. He soberly advised me that they would send the police to bodily take  me in. That was enough for me so reluctantly I checked into a private hospital and was confined to bed under a mosquito net for three whole boring days.

It turned out to be a colossal waste of money as nothing was  wrong with me except some ordinary damn flu.

The second time was in 2018 when a group of us went on a cruise of the Canal zone. The  night before we arrived in Old Cartagena, Colombia,  I had gone to watch the show on board and had to comment how a man behind me was coughing non stop.

The next day we took a tour of the old city and after we had finished  visiting the square, I stood on the sidewalk waiting on my friends when Bam, I collapsed on the sidewalk. nearly bashing my head on raised section. Maybe I was temporarily out as when I came to, a crowd was standing over me with everyone offering to help. My friends secured my belongings and put me in a taxi back to the boat.

I had not been feeling ill but when  they took my temperature it was 104 degrees. Long story short, I was then quarantined to my room for two days. It was so boring. I did not really want to come off in Limon, Costa Rica as I have visited it quite a few times, neither did I want to come off in Colon as I had also visited that town once and did not like it.

That's all I could see of Colon from my balcony

But being confined to my room while everyone else was out having fun was a killer.
I later learnt that 40% of the passengers on that ship had gotten the flu and some even had to be airlifted off.

I recall all this as I listen to the horror  stories of people being quarantined on cruise ships for up to fourteen days during  this corona outbreak and I sympathize with them as I think I  would die if I was confined to a cabin for such long periods!

 I really love taking cruises and was looking forward to doing the river cruise down the Rhine later this year, stopping in Northern and central Europe on the way, but I think I might just give cruises a break for a while.

For while cruises are fun, quarantine is hell.