In the last election, then-candidate Andrew Holness promised an income tax break. Well, it has now come to fruition for at least one young man. His hilarious response has gone viral. Check it out and here’s the link to the story:

Dear The Most Hon. Andrew Holness,

This is a heartfelt expression of gratitude for the tax break. In all honesty Mr. PM, this is not a tax break, this is a tax smash – a tax mash up. Mr. PM when I saw my pay cheque yesterday, I hummed a sweet song to the heavens. I feel like a new creation; a brand new man. I borrow from Tanto Blacks in proclaiming that I’m rich, real rich!

Mr. PM, up until Monday of this week, I’d spend conservatively but now that I’m a wealthy man, money is the least of my concerns.

This morning on my way to work I saw a $100 bill floating about on the ground. Mr. PM, you believe seh mi step pass di money like any piece a garbage? If this was last week I’d take a mad man to court just to prove that the money was mine.

With this wealth Mr. PM, I will no longer commute to work via route taxis. Weh frowsy car and sardine behavior a guh? Strictly Gadge Pro until I buy the Range Rover this weekend.

With this wealth I will not have plantain and bread and bush tea for breakfast ever again. Nope. Mr. PM, right now I’m on my way to Cafe Blue for some eggs & bacon with pancake and a cup of Cappuccino.

Mi nah lie Mr. PM, mi feel like mi need fi open a small loan company – me alone cannot enjoy di prosperity. Or maybe I should reach out to Butch Stewart and let him know I’m interested in buying some shares in Sandals? I don’t know.

Mr. PM there are so many plans I have for this wealth but I can’t write it all here. What’s your schedule like this weekend? Now that I’m in the big leagues I think we should catch up over golfing at Half Moon Resort; or maybe we can go visit President Obama and we all have a drink – you decide.

Oh by the way Mr. PM, if you selling yuh house, mek mi know.

Regards,
Kingsley Morgan
Taxbreakonaire

Apparently Usain Bolt’s arrival in Rio for the Olympics is tabloid-worthy news.

Jidenna’s new video, shot in JA

I never tire of this view from my front door, nor the sound the fronds make in the wind.

When I was a girl, I would disappear with a stack of lined paper and a sharpened pencil. I would write for hours, stories picked fresh from my imagination. I recently found the binder full of these stories. It is maroon, and I apparently used a stencil and a silver marker to write ‘KATE’S STORIES’ and ‘TOP SECRET’ on the cover. Dozens and dozens of stories I had written, and I know there were dozens more. Those were just the ones I kept. Fanciful, wildly imaginative and complex stories. I was so proud of them and I know they served as a dependable escape from a not-so-secure home.

I know I am not alone in my love of writing. However, I’m pretty sure  most girls and boys now don’t write stories with paper and pencil anymore. I don’t even do that. Our thoughts now pour out onto a computer screen, easily erased, easily altered. It changes the entire creative process. Your commitment to a thought and a sentence is less stringent now, as you can just press the backspace key. A good eraser back then used to be the key to successfully writing a story for me, although I seem to have used footnotes as well.

In any case, I was pondering my stories, along with a conversation I had with a twenty-something friend. I asked her if she was on WhatsApp or if she went on Facebook or Twitter anymore to talk to her friends. “No,” she said, laughing. “So how do you talk to your friends then?” I asked.

“Snapchat,”she said, and I’m pretty sure she is not an anomaly. For those who don’t know, Snapchat is a form of social media in which you share a picture or short video. Words are optional and it disappears within 24 hours. You can “chat” to your friends privately this way.

So young people now rarely write messages to one another anymore via text, email etc, let alone actually take the physical action of writing.

And Facebook, perhaps still the most influential form of social media (with 1.65 billion users globally, compared to WhatsApp with 1 billion, Instagram with 400 million, Twitter with 320 and SnapChat with 200 million), sees that this is the future. In a recent discussion, founder Mark Zuckerberg indicates his focus going forward is video and “augmented reality.” In other words, video is set to become the main form of communication. Pictures will replace words.

The written word, in this reality, is unnecessary. What kind of world will that create? What will happen to the process of having a thought, becoming aware of it, translating it to how it applies to the real world, rendering it appropriate to be communicated and understood? Writing is so much a part of this process, of communication. So what happens in a world in which nobody writes anymore and we only use pictures? It’s hard to see.

This is wonderful- an animated film based on the life of Usain Bolt.

This is a great web site featuring all things Jamaican Olympics. It seems to be an independent group of “Jamaican sports enthusiasts” who have put together an attractive, comprehensive web site leading up to the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil. Check it out here.

Congratulations to Lady Jessica, who is at the International Aids Conference in Durban, South Africa. She is representing the Colour Pink Foundation.