Negril revisited

As a child, I visited Negril in Westmoreland, Jamaica many times with my parents, brother and cousins, as it has the most beautiful white sand beaches and cool, clear, warm water and on the west end, people were having fun jumping off various rocks into the clear blue waters. 

You see, where we lived in the neighboring parish of St. Elizabeth, had nothing comparable.

At that time, Negril was a little sleepy fishing village.

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Somehow in the 1960's, rich hippies from the nearby USA, heard about it and propelled by the thought of being able to freely enjoy some top quality ganja (marijuana) while lounging on the beach or jumping off 40 foot high cliffs into the clear water below, started to visit. 

The  Negril lighthouse

People from all over the world are still enjoying themselves, jumping off the high cliffs into the clear blue waters today.

Then they were accommodated in nothing but thatch huts, offered by extremely hospitable people.

  The existence of this new hot spot near the USA spread rapidly  and soon people from all over the world started to find their way to the exotic village. 

That was the genesis of tourism in this most prized section of Jamaica and today, almost all the land on the 7 mile section of the beach is lined with bars, hotels, restaurants while the cliff side is abuzz, offering everything including high end accommodation, non-stop music, partying and fun for people of all ages.

The late great Peter Tosh who also hailed from Westmoreland, strongly advocated for the legaling of marijuana and numerous paintings of him with his mantra " Legalize It" are prominent on the wall at Ricks Cafe.

I had not visited the cliff side for more than a decade and was really impressed with what it had become.

Ricks Cafe which established itself    

beside the jumping spot 50 years ago, has been expanding  exponentially too.

 That's the party center of the West end.

Boats bring visitors from the beaches to the cliff side to jump off the rocks.

They come from land and sea to party.

Negril is definitely now on top of its game and I loved the vibes.🥳

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.