Kingston is not yet a true city

[Panajar]

"DECAYING buildings are jumbled together, forming a mass broken at irregular intervals by open spaces where animals, the indigent and children wonder untended. Streets are narrow, winding and unpaved and are the chief repositories of refuse. Proper drainage is non-existent, lighting is inadequate and sewage flows in the gutters. Law and order is spasmodic and not always by public authorities."

This is an excerpt from Gideon Sjoberg's classic "The Preindustrial City" describing medieval cities. But you could just as well be reading about parts of Kingston, Jamaica.

Kingston is a human settlement on the Liguanea plain sloping gently up from one of the finest natural harbours in the world to the magnificent blue green hills of St Andrew. No more beautiful habitat exists anywhere on the globe. <span style="font-size: 14pt">Yet Jamaicans and their British colonisers systematically despoiled this natural patrimony bequeathing to future generations the irreparably damaged possibility of a city.</span>

We expect disagreement but we maintain that Kingston is not yet a city. Edward Glaeser in &quot;Triumph of the City&quot; correctly extols the virtues of cities as places where humanity can realise their full potential in all ventures of life through a community that facilitates collaboration, increases specialisation and prompts innovation and creativity. <span style="font-size: 17pt">This is certainly not the case in Kingston where there is but a territory of warring gangs and <span style="text-decoration: underline">people who despise and avoid each because of colour, class and politics</span>.</span>

<span style="color: #990000"><span style="font-size: 14pt">The state of Kingston is an indictment on the lack of planning and concern by the ruling classes who made their living in the city but left it for England (the British) or more recently Miami (the local plantation owner or merchant) for the salubrious climes - from downtown, to South Camp Road, then to Hope Road and on to Barbican, Beverley Hills and Cherry Gardens, continuing up the hill, further and further removed from Kingston</span>.</span>

<span style="font-size: 14pt">The wealthy abandoned the city and deprived it of their expenditure by relocating the business centre from Harbour St/King St to New Kingston. The poorer classes and unwelcome rural outcasts are scattered centrifugally to the periphery. Spatial</span> segregation, <span style="font-size: 17pt"><span style="text-decoration: underline">residential aparthied</span> and ecological differentiation starkly enforce a rigid bifurcation of uptown-downtown differences in language, social behaviour and income&quot;</span>.






<span style="font-size: 14pt">Interesting piece from the editor at least he acknowledge that these issues were around during colonial rule and didn't start in the 70s under Micheal Manley ,as a lot of Jamaicans were conditioned to to believe.The writer correctly pointed out that the ruling classes, from slavery to present were and are a group of parasites whose only intent is to profit of the back of the mostly black population.</span>

Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/edito...#ixzz1EFe9wvMC

[Dr.Dudd]

Re: Kingston is not yet a true city

They are forced to acknowledge it there because it us available at Jamaicans.com bullitin board on a weekly basis.
I post theater fact at least once per week in reply to the oft repeated lie That corruption only started after indepence.

If they dont admit They will become irrelivant as a source of news to the electronically connected of which will soon be the majority.

It is another way where we can be influential and prod the changes we would like to see.
Posting on these pages may be unpopulsr but if it get the result it is worth being unpopular any day.

[Panajar]

Re: Kingston is not yet a true city

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Dr.Dudd</div><div class="ubbcode-body">They are forced to acknowledge it there because it us available at Jamaicans.com bullitin board on a weekly basis.
I post theater fact at least once per week in reply to the oft repeated lie That corruption only started after indepence.

If they dont admit They will become irrelivant as a source of news to the electronically connected of which will soon be the majority.

It is another way where we can be influential and prod the changes we would like to see.
Posting on these pages may be unpopulsr but if it get the result it is worth being unpopular any day. </div></div>

I know that this topic is not popular and might make some people uncomfortable but i will continue to post on this subject until the cows come home.I was surprised that the editor comment on the housing apartheid in Jamaica.

[RichD]

Re: Kingston is not yet a true city

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">residential aparthied and ecological differentiation starkly enforce a rigid bifurcation of uptown-downtown differences in language, social behaviour and income&quot;.</div></div>

but he did not include colour?

[evanovitch]

Re: Kingston is not yet a true city

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I know that this topic is not popular and might make some people uncomfortable but i will continue to post on this subject until the cows come home.I was surprised that the editor comment on the housing apartheid in Jamaica.
</div></div>

u been around fi one year...all dem subject yah discuss, chaw ovah, spit out an leff fi u di newbie gwane wid u eureka moment....

u n Doc should form a partnership... he repeats himself too

[Panajar]

Re: Kingston is not yet a true city

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: evanovitch</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> <div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I know that this topic is not popular and might make some people uncomfortable but i will continue to post on this subject until the cows come home.I was surprised that the editor comment on the housing apartheid in Jamaica.
</div></div>

u been around fi one year...all dem subject yah discuss, chaw ovah, spit out an leff fi u di newbie gwane wid u eureka moment....

u n Doc should form a partnership... he repeats himself too </div></div>

Honestly I haven't been around as long as you, so please forgive my ignorance on this subject.Comparing to you, my knowledge of Jamaica and this board is limited.I can only dream of accomplishing such a enormous feat as you have,with over 50000 posts!

My knowledge of Jamaica is limited ,because i left the island when i was in my 20s.Anyway enough about me,given your vast knowledge of the island and its intricacies what is YOUR opinion on this piece ?

[evanovitch]

Re: Kingston is not yet a true city

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Panajar</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: evanovitch</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> <div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I know that this topic is not popular and might make some people uncomfortable but i will continue to post on this subject until the cows come home.I was surprised that the editor comment on the housing apartheid in Jamaica.
</div></div>

u been around fi one year...all dem subject yah discuss, chaw ovah, spit out an leff fi u di newbie gwane wid u eureka moment....

u n Doc should form a partnership... he repeats himself too </div></div>

Honestly I haven't been around as long as you, so please forgive my ignorance on this subject.Comparing to you, my knowledge of Jamaica and this board is limited.I can only dream of accomplishing such a enormous feat as you have,with over 50000 posts!

My knowledge of Jamaica is limited ,because i left the island when i was in my 20s.Anyway enough about me,given your vast knowledge of the island and its intricacies what is opinion on this piece ? </div></div>

well we done know seh dat ascawding to u all wrongs due to Blinds and JLP...so y now u want differing opinions pon one of ur posts...an di sarcasm really is a truism yep it is hard to be humble wen u perfect in sooo many ways... ...apart from dat mi juss a play puss n mouse

[evanovitch]

Re: Kingston is not yet a true city

btw CHILDREN OF SISYPHUS is being republished...goes wid ur topic

[neutral]

Re: Kingston is not yet a true city

LOL@this thread.

[jah_yout]

Re: Kingston is not yet a true city

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: RichD</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">residential aparthied and ecological differentiation starkly enforce a rigid bifurcation of uptown-downtown differences in language, social behaviour and income&quot;.</div></div>

but he did not include colour? </div></div>

yeah those syrian, chinese &amp; white gangs are running kingston red

[Panajar]

Re: Kingston is not yet a true city

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: RichD</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">residential aparthied and ecological differentiation starkly enforce a rigid bifurcation of uptown-downtown differences in language, social behaviour and income&quot;.</div></div>

but he did not include colour? </div></div>

Interesting observation,i can only speculate on his reasons for not mentioning color AGAIN.But could it be he did not want to repeat himself since he has already mentioned it in a previous paragraph, as quoted below.


<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: OBSERVER EDITOR</div><div class="ubbcode-body">This is certainly not the case in Kingston where there is but a territory of warring gangs and people who despise and avoid each because of <span style="font-weight: bold">COLOUR</span> class and politics.</div></div>

[jah_yout]

Re: Kingston is not yet a true city

you skip over the part about warring gangs...

how are they any better than the colored people (non-blacks) who are a part of the problem...
most of the gangs are black so they share as much responsibility as any colored guy...
right now the problem is not the colored people--- it is the blacks who are the problem;

if they are not willing to brainstorm how to unite &amp; elevate their fellow blacks then they don't deserve the land that their ancestors fought &amp; died for only to have their descendants become their own worst enemy;

it is just the start...even non-jamaican colored folk will be coming in to buy out the land from under their noses as they worship at the altar of vybz kartel and fail to safeguard the homeland due to petty warring