Family Time

One of the bands at Caribana 2018

For years, I envied my ex husband, as he had such a large family and although I became extremely close to all of them and remained so even after the divorce, somehow not having my own large family still left me feeling a bit isolated. You see, I have only one brother and two cousins who grew up with me but each time we got together, we seemed so few as opposed to his family.

A section of the Caribana parade 2018

Well I am now discovering that it is not that I have a small family, my problem is I just never knew many of them!

The largest unknown segment of my family is from my paternal grandfather's side. I had met him only once and was dead scared of him as he was blind so wore dark glasses. I had never before seen anyone in dark glasses. Besides, he had a large grey beard so to me, a young kid of probably six years old in the days before television was invented thus exposing us to different looking folks, that was a very scary picture! I remember running away from him on that occasion, although his wife, my grandmother was my greatest hero.

 I guess it was because I never knew him why I never knew anything about his family either and never considered asking. It is only recently that I discovered he was one of 14 children and their descendants are spread out throughout the world.

Some of my Cuban kin

I therefore was most excited to meet a cousin from Canada who had a wealth of  information about that side of the family.

First, I learnt that I had cousins in Cuba and having traveled there three times already from my home in Jamaica which is only 90 miles away, had no problem jumping on a plane to find them in 2014.

It was a great pleasure meeting them and learning a bit about their family.

Our relationship stems from their late matriarch who was a sister to that grandfather. 

In the early 1900's, numerous Jamaicans migrated to Cuba in search of employment as then that country then had a thriving economy. That grandaunt of mine was among those who migrated there, she got married, had three daughters and she ended up seeing eleven grandchildren before she died at age one hundred and seven.

I was extremely happy to make a

Some of us bonded immediately

link with those descendants and am now in regular communication with the eldest who is the only one who speaks English. She has always said her greatest dream is to visit Jamaica, the country of her ancestors.

More link-up was to come as the same Canadian cousin who is my source of information, told me she was arranging a small reunion of some relatives who live there plus sisters who live in Seattle, Washington.

She was smart enough to arrange the reunion to coincide with Caribana. We had a lovely get- together at the Event's room at her condo and got to know all about each other and some of our late relatives all over the world.

Get together in Toronto

I bonded immediately with most of my newly met family and some of us toured together, first at Caribana and also on a boat tour of the harbor front of the vast, busy Lake Ontario.

Caribana is a cultural festival of Caribbean people and traditions which has been held each summer since the late sixties, in the city of Toronto. 

This has been billed as North America's largest street festival and it is frequented by over 2 million visitors each year. It was first held on Centre Island, one of the Toronto islands, but quickly outgrew that venue so was transferred to the streets of Exhibition Place and Lakeshore Blvd. downtown. 

The man-made lake on Centre Island in which we overturned 

When l lived in Canada many decades ago, I remember attending the carnival at Centre island and vividly recall renting a canoe and overturning, spilling all our belongings including even a radio which never played again.

I was therefore happy that I could go to the family reunion and take in the carnival at the new venue, along with the Seattle based sisters who spent a few more days in Toronto.

We all had a wonderful time there viewing the costumes and tasting the various foods and in general, just hanging out.

I must admit that each time I meet new members of the family, it certainly brings me a great sense of belonging and I look forward to many such events in the future.

An Inuit sculpture on Lakeshore Blvd.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." Martin Luther King

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=LOOKING+BACK.........%3A+The+Struggle+To+Preserve+Our+Freedoms

It reads like a spy thriller but events written about in this intriguing book really happened in little Jamaica in the 70's where the author, now an outspoken talk show host, was forced to join other courageous, freedom loving activists in the struggle to preserve their freedoms. This was during the era when the cold war raged and Jamaica was caught up in the deadly struggle between the USSR and USA for world domination. During that period Jamaicans actually fought an "undeclared civil war" as political deception/intrigue, the massacre of innocents and even downright treason by a government minister became dangers that had to be overcome as the dominant international spy agencies, the Russian KGB, the Cuban DGI and the American Central American Agency (CIA) assisted their local surrogates to try to dominate Jamaica, then eventually the entire English Speaking Caribbean.

In looking back now, Joan boldly declares that she feels nothing but gratitude to the CIA for their surreptitious assistance to those who were not prepared to capitulate and lose their freedoms to the power hungry Michael Manley regime . She writes “In light of the fact that those who tried to sell out our country to the eastern bloc were armed and financed by the Russian KGB and the Cuban DGI, I reiterate even now, that had the CIA or whichever other US agency not assisted the JLP in the undeclared civil war that raged between 1978 and 1980, the freedoms we accept as normal today would not have been preserved." Her determination to remain a free citizen however, even meant her having to make the ultimate sacrifice of having to send her children away, but this lady reluctantly made the painful decision for she wanted them to enjoy the freedoms she had been accustomed to.

However, as she reviews the terrible economic conditions in Jamaica today compounded by the fact that the country is one of the top 5 "Murder Capitals of the World," Williams wonders out loud if it was all worth the effort? However, since she discovered close relatives in Cuba, she visited that country recently and concluded, “I have visited Cuba four times, including once in 2014 to get acquainted with and spend a few days with some cousins who were born there. Although the natural beauty of that country cannot be totally destroyed, life there is simply intolerable for the residents. And I am not talking about only the lack of freedoms but also how the system makes it impossible for people to advance economically no matter how hard they work. So poverty is pervasive while corruption and prostitution are rampant as people turn to any means necessary to survive. So if it’s the CIA that assisted us to win the battle that saved us from becoming a deprived, browbeaten and hopeless people like the Cubans, I feel nothing but gratitude towards them."

In Looking Back, Williams does not only reminisce about the past however, but more importantly, wonders about the future under what she describes as the “Bastardisation of the Westminster System"  as practiced in Jamaica today. For while Jamaica is theoretically a “democratic” nation,  she reveals how some 25% of their electoral constituencies are tightly controlled by gunmen aligned to senior politicians in the dominant parties, the JLP and PNP. This is what she sadly insists accounts for the fact that Jamaica’s murder rate remains frighteningly high while the young people lose hope.

This is a timely, thought provoking and insightful book which is a “must read” for persons interested in democracy, politics and international affairs.

In Part 2 of this mini- autobiography, Williams shares the torment she went through when her only son was murdered and the surprise possibility she is forced to face since 2014, that he was actually murdered by someone in the Police Force, which is paid by taxpayers to "serve and protect." She also shares some quite hilarious views on family, religion, marijuana and other matters, ensuring that readers are never bored.

https://youtu.be/LvUJXyiJKKM