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Re: Behind the Tattered Curtain...
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Jazz</div><div class="ubbcode-body">de sweeping generalizations bout de life of hardship and deprivation faced by the locals which is their reality cause dem live inna wan 3rd world country... </div></div>
It gets to me too. I just returned form a trip that included a week in Negril with a lot of people (about 100) who are either new to JA or have only been to Negril once or twice. The impressions they get of Jamaica, as seen through their week, are incredibly skewed.
A friend of mine was shocked to meet a white Jamaican person. Many of the group thought everyone lives in little wood shacks behind shops. Some thought the big houses they saw on the way to the falls were all foreign owned.
But this is the impression Negril can give you, unless you dig deep, talk to people, move around. Go to Mandeville, as you say, or go to Kingston, spend time watching and listening. Meet people who have nothing at all to do with tourism, who want to sell you something as much as you want to sell them something.
I don't pretend to know everything, or anything much, but i too wince when these generalizations are made. And if i am able, I point them out and correct them when i can, as I had the chance to do this past trip with so many new people.
That said, I did see this story as one about a foreigner (who I also met, about 10 years ago). Some lines of the story might suggest Jamaica is to blame for her predicament, but i do not see that impression as the intention of the author at all.
I have learned a lot from this board, many people here have raised my consciousness about many issues, many related to Jamaica and many not - and I appreciate that. I am richer for it.
Sometimes pointing out generalizations, "raising consciousness" can come across as very critical, and people can react defensively to that. But it is the internet, it is not as if we were chatting around a table together, in person.
That would be very different, i know.
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Jazz</div><div class="ubbcode-body">de sweeping generalizations bout de life of hardship and deprivation faced by the locals which is their reality cause dem live inna wan 3rd world country... </div></div>
It gets to me too. I just returned form a trip that included a week in Negril with a lot of people (about 100) who are either new to JA or have only been to Negril once or twice. The impressions they get of Jamaica, as seen through their week, are incredibly skewed.
A friend of mine was shocked to meet a white Jamaican person. Many of the group thought everyone lives in little wood shacks behind shops. Some thought the big houses they saw on the way to the falls were all foreign owned.
But this is the impression Negril can give you, unless you dig deep, talk to people, move around. Go to Mandeville, as you say, or go to Kingston, spend time watching and listening. Meet people who have nothing at all to do with tourism, who want to sell you something as much as you want to sell them something.
I don't pretend to know everything, or anything much, but i too wince when these generalizations are made. And if i am able, I point them out and correct them when i can, as I had the chance to do this past trip with so many new people.
That said, I did see this story as one about a foreigner (who I also met, about 10 years ago). Some lines of the story might suggest Jamaica is to blame for her predicament, but i do not see that impression as the intention of the author at all.
I have learned a lot from this board, many people here have raised my consciousness about many issues, many related to Jamaica and many not - and I appreciate that. I am richer for it.
Sometimes pointing out generalizations, "raising consciousness" can come across as very critical, and people can react defensively to that. But it is the internet, it is not as if we were chatting around a table together, in person.
That would be very different, i know.
an want send mi cuzzin back to we shack wen a 15 a we libb in deh waiiieee 
mi a anny miself now too 
mi nah read di ress till tinight mi a beg unnu leff it 
and move on to how she eat/drink/get around town? did any man misuse her seen as she kinda fragile? Altho, she does sound spunky, so didnt that help her? Hellllooo anyone anyone?
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