Carnival

 I guess Florida is different from the rest of the world, for as Carol pointed out, Carnivals are usually held around the Easter season (February to April), but Miami's and and Tamarac's was in October. 

Rain or shine, we take in the music events😉.

For years, we in Jamaica had no carnival, so when we wanted to jump and wine, we had to hop on the unreliable, Trinidad and Tobago-owned BWIA (aka Better walk if able or But will it arrive?) and take a flight in excess of three hours to see greats like the Mighty Sparrow. (He died at age 91 on September 27th, 2026).

Walk good honorable sir.🙏

He has been greatly missed ever since he becane ill, for no other Calypsonian had his creativity, energy, ability to deliver subtle social commentary and he had a fantastic sense of humor too🤎.

We Jamaicans owe a debt of gratitude to the late, great musician, Byron Lee, late leader/founder of the popular dance band, Byron Lee and the Dragonaires, for importing Carnival into Jamaica so we could stop flying BWIA.

But I stray.

I am so happy I live in Tamarac, for they celebrate everything with free music sessions, and that's right up my street.

Last night it was really a practice session for the full carnival including costumes, road march etc on October 9, featuring Allison Hinds. (That will not be free though so I will skip it!😁.

It was a good evening with nice music and other features. 

Everyone had a good time. 

There was even a personal trainer there giving stretching therapy for a small fee.

Good for the old bodies. 🤣.

The event was held at the amphitheater and you could cool off at the water fountain afterwards if you so wished. 

The water fountain was turned on right there for cooling off.

Kudos Tamarac.

Jamaica independent? Really?

Thanks to the performance of the Jamaican women's 4x100 metre  team on  Independence Day Friday 6th August 2021, we really had something exceptional to celebrate.

These ladies, Briana Williams, Elaine Thompson-Herah, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson also clocked a national record 41.02 seconds for Jamaica's first gold in that event since 2004. So, building on the other gold medals won  by Parchment and the ladies in the 100 metre, plus the silver and bronze medals brought home by the other star performers in the previous days, our athletes once again wowed the world and made us so proud.

What a wonderful gift for our struggling nation on the 59^th anniversary of our ‘independence’ from Britain!

While I, like everyone else, was overjoyed by the performance of those who medaled, I would like to take this opportunity to celebrate all the elite athletes who represented Jamaica at the 2020 Olympics, whether they medaled or not.

For just qualifying to reach the top of their careers by qualifying to compete in the Olympics is an outstanding feat. While we tend to only see the final results, their success did not come by accident but it took years of dedicated training and discipline to qualify.

 I am therefore personally proud and thankful for all our young athletes who mek Jamaica tek shame outta wi yeye as we celebrate another year of ‘independence’.

For apart from the prowess of these disciplined individuals year in year out, when one reflects on the counter-productive political shenanigans which landed us with economic disasters like FINSAC and the violence ridden society that we have built since independence, there is not much else to celebrate.

Look at the per capita income in US$’s of some other Caribbean islands which got independence after us; Bahamas- 23,671, Barbados-16,237, Antigua $16,176, Trinidad 15,459, Dominica 7,091, Jamaica $4,934.

Fact is, we have the lowest per capita income of all the former British colonies in the Caribbean!

So here we are, though blessed with a myriad of natural resources, yet we have really failed to gain a modicum of economic independence and social stability during those 59 years.

Apart from the economic and social failures, the question I keep asking is how can we be called independent when we, the first English speaking Caribbean country to declare ‘independence’, remain so steeped in mental slavery that we insist on retaining a foreign head of state?

And not even a good foreign one either, when we consider the brutality with which Britain treated our ancestors during slavery and colonialism!

This unacceptable situation remains although both parties, JLP and PNP, which have alternated in government since independence, have at one time or the other promised to enact the necessary constitutional change to correct that unsavory situation. But guess what they say is holding up the process?

The PNP wants an executive president while the JLP wants a ceremonial president. In the meantime, Dominica, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and soon Barbados, (once known as Little England) have not dithered on the issue.

One the other hand, as if to entrench this love for the racist British monarchy, our own prime minister Andrew Holness in July 2021, accepted appointment to the British Privy Council!

All this is the midst of Caricom now taking a decisive and cooperative approach in demanding reparations from Britain for their brutality, rape, murder and exploitation of or ancestors during slavery and colonialism and their continued oppression of our people during what is now proven to be the Windrush scandal!

My dislike of the current relations​​hip with Britain has nothing to do with the present queen who has been quite unobtrusive and benign. However, she will not live forever and the thought of a foreigner with Charles' reputation and character being the head of state of my country, is even more intolerable.

Anyway, regardless of who it is that sits on the racist British throne, 59 years is just too long for us to claim to be independent while that situation prevails. 

https://youtu.be/oCqHflj4SNE