Last week, fellow volunteer and National Youth Orchestra of Jamaica‘s Executive Director Karen Prentice got a terrible shock. Her Mac Pro was stolen from a room at Kingston College where some NYOJ members were practicing. It seems a man, whom many people did not recognize, was hanging around and saw an opportunity. He was seen putting something in a box, presumably Karen’s computer, which had been under the care of a colleague while she took pictures of some new music stands.

The NYOJ is doing some wonderful work: they recruit high school students from tough, inner-city communities, who want to learn how to play a musical instrument. Through this experience, they also learn the intangibles like discipline, dedication and how to work as part of a team. They are also exposed to a curriculum that is not readily available in most Jamaican schools.

Karen immediately filed a report with the police, but they say there’s not much they can do because there is no picture of the individual, despite two eye-witness accounts of the suspect. The security cameras at the school are broken, of course, and the security guard says he saw nothing suspicious.

Needless to say, Karen is heartbroken, and not because of the loss of a piece of technology. She is despondent over the loss of close to two years of work, irreplaceable footage from NYOJ’s endeavours and a documentary that was close to completion (Karen is a journalist.)

The reward is being offered in the hopes that someone will return the computer, no questions asked, and these precious documents and memories will be returned to Karen. However, in reality, the computer has probably already been sold for a small sum. Please share this post widely, perhaps we can recover these precious memories.

Clothing stall in Morant Bay, St. Thomas.

Jan’s Couture. This is a small clothing store in Morant Bay. The front was covered by this blue tarp, I imagine to protect the clothes from the dust of the street. You can see one dress, a short, white piece, meant to entice buyers.

Jamaica is the 9th most miserable country in the world? So says the right-leaning Cato Institute, which compiles an annual Misery Index (headed by Johns Hopkins Professor Steve Hanke). The Index accounts for purely economical measures such as Gross Domestic Product, unemployment rates, inflation and lending rates. UWO Sociologist Dr. Orville Taylor points out the flaws in this compilation:

“They don’t have any other measurements such as freedom of movement, freedom of expression, and those types of sociological variables. It shows the bankruptcy of economic theory in explaining social life,” he told The Gleaner yesterday. Some of these elements such as unemployment are things that have to be understood more deeply. For example, unemployment may be unreliable because of how it is measured and reported,” Taylor added.

I tend to agree with Dr. Taylor, but the misery associated with not having the means to support oneself and one’s family cannot be underestimated. Neither can a strong sense of faith, which Jamaica definitely has, and which Cato’s Index does not account for. One thing that is remarkable about Jamaicans is their faith and belief that everything will be alright. Most seem to lack that existential anxiety common to the North and Western nations.

The countries that are apparently more miserable than Jamaica are as follows: Venzuala, argentina, Syria, Ukraine, Iran, Brazil, Sao Tome and Principe and Serbia. The least miserable countries are: Brunei, Switzerland, China, Taiwan, Japan.

Last night, I dreamt I was hosting the Oscars. My monologue was turning out to be a boring disaster, so I decided that doing some aerobics would be more entertaining. I was finally allowed off the stage, away from the massive audience, and then I found myself talking to J LO, who comforted me and tried to reassure me I did a good job. Perhaps this dream was prompted by the fact that I had just watched the Miss Universe pageant.

Usually, I find these pageants just as boring as watching me doing aerobics, but I was too intrigued by Miss Jamaica Kaci Fennell, who was touted to be a possible winner of the whole thing. Unfortunately, Miss Fennell was 4th runner up, but she performed with beauty and grace. I was not alone in my support and curiosity.

Here is HalfWay Tree last night

When Jamaicans believe in something, they support it with full force. Waggonists, some people called them. This certainly happened with Miss Kaci, although there was the usual sniping that she was not dark enough, and that her costume did not adequately represent Jamaica. Check it out and for what its worth, as a foreigner, I was surprised at this choice, because carnival is certainly just a fraction of what Jamaican culture consists of, and it does not even restrict itself to the sacred green, gold and black

Also for what it’s worth, I find pageants troublesome with their objectification of women, their tendency to render multifaceted people into one dimension and their focus on perfection and unattainable goals. This was especially evident last night with the final questions, in which the women were asked questions that could never possibly be answered in the 30 seconds they were allotted. End violence against women? Send a message to “terrorists”? For the record, Miss USA said she would tell the terrorists all about America’s message of hope and love.

Miss Kaci appeared very nervous during these questions, but when asked what she thought Jamaica’s best export to the world was, she did all she had to do to win over the audience, which was mention Bob Marley and Usain Bolt. When she was announced as the 5th runnerup, there were loud boos, and the other contestants appeared to agree with this feeling, when they gathered around her at the end and lifted her up. Miss Colombia won, for the record. Poor Miss Kaci this morning posted a video asking if she could come home…I suspect Jamaicans, despite being waggonists, will welcome her home with the spirit they supported her with.

As for Miss Canada, she needs to be met with a new stylist and then deliver an apology to the nation for her hideous, misrepresenting, ridiculous costume.  Waaaahhhh, so embarrassing!

The Intransit Bar, rural Jamaica.

This is me about 10 years ago. I was just starting my journalism career, covering City Hall. This is the former Mayor of Ottawa and I suspect I was asking him something about funding.

Sunset over the Kingston Harbour. There is a cool breeze these days, but the sun is starting to set a little later.

Since entering journalism school some years ago and acquiring a manual, non-digital camera, one of my favourite things to do is walk around and take pictures. Whether it is a bustling downtown core or my own neighborhood, I love walking for hours and capturing those moments of life we might otherwise overlook. I had a feeling I wouldn’t be able to do this in Kingston and I was right. It is not really safe and many people seem to take offense at a “foreigner” taking their picture (although many don’t, I must say). So I have yet to take a camera down to the madness that is HalfWay Tree or downtown, especially the street of clothes on Princess Street, where vendors have obliterated the overhead skyline by stringing clothes above the roadway, from one store to another like a laundry line. The colors, the life, the millions of exchanges are beautiful madness. Perhaps one day I will gather the courage or find a suitable person to accompany me. For now, I must be satisfied with using my iPhone from the car window, which takes surprisingly good pictures. Here is HalfWay Tree about mid-day. It really never settles down there, the characters just change, from the people selling clothes and books and food, to the “loaders” putting people on coasters, to the young men selling drugs or soliciting gold, to the people passing through. The only hours I have not witnessed what it is like there is from about 2am to 4:30am. I imagine it is quieter then, but some transactions must still occur, probably more of the illegal kind.

Some signs near Halfway Tree, Kingston.