Last night Digicel (a major telecom company) sponsored a concert to honour Bob Marley’s 86th birthday. It was also part of Reggae Month, which is February, also in honour of Bob’s birthday. After a long day of grant writing (we finished!), I met up with some people at Emancipation Park, where the concert was held. It was packed with the kind of crowd that  could appear in a video for “One Love”. Lots of Rastas, some tourists, and lots of Jamaicans of all ages. The vendors were out, as usual, selling everything from ice cream from a box on the back of a bike, to Red Stripes to Bob Marley flags and jewelry.

Performers included I-Octane, Jermaine Edwards (a gospel singer), dancehall artist Tifa, Capleton, Luciano and Chronixx. We were so far back in the crowd we couldn’t really see the stage, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. No Marleys performed at the concert. Maybe they will take part in one of the many other concerts planned for Reggae Month.

It has come to my attention that this is International Development Week. According to CIDA, this represents an opportunity to explore what it means for Canadians to be involved in international development around the world. This is timely for me. I am currently wrapping up the writing of a grant for EU funding for the NGO I am working with.

Prior to coming to Jamaica, I had ideas about what international development is. Having lived in India, being born in Australia, both events the result of a father who worked for CIDA, I had my opinions about international development. I also had plenty of opinions based on all those books and journal articles I read as a political science graduate student.

That was before Jamaica. I now have an entirely different set of post-Jamaica opinions about international development. They are still forming, but let me say that the divide between theory and practice has never been so clear in my mind as it is now. I will also say that there is an abundance of good people doing good work, with their hearts in the right place.

Happy International Development Week!

Happy Birthday Bob!

It is Bob Marley’s birthday. Enjoy this live performance of “Lively up yourself” and have a wonderful day.

Last week, the Gleaner ran another instalment of the series in their Youthlink section that asks teens to consider ethical dilemmas. Youth Opportunities Unlimited has partnered with them for this, and it ran last Tuesday, but I did not get around to posting it until today. This scenario involves a girl who meets an older man while walking through a bus terminal. She is short of bus fare, and he offers to pay. He is 35 and she is 14. They end up in a relationship, with this older man paying for a lot of the things she needs.

According to interviews I have done with people in inner-city communities, this is quite common, to the point that these young girls (age 13, 14, 15) will end up living with these men. No family members or friends dare to comment lest they upset the individual and ultimately cut off the financial source. The respondents in the article are not given titles, but I solicited answers from a 19-year-old woman, a high school guidance counsellor and a man who works for a government poverty reduction program.

Here is the link, check it out.

This morning, I went for a run at the Reservoir and caught a taxi back down Hope Road to get home. I hailed a route taxi, as is my habit. It was a dark gray car with the customary red sign on the side. (Route taxis follow the same route as the buses do. They are often rickety old cars that have been stripped down. Door handles too, so you sometimes have to open the door from the outside, and sometimes I’ve even worried about the door staying shut. You are also often squished in together with four or five other people).

In any case, after I confirmed that the driver was going to Half-Way Tree, I noticed I would be the only passenger in the car. This made me a bit nervous, but I figured we would soon pick up other passengers. I immediately smelled the pungent odor of marijuana. Once the driver got off the phone, he asked me “Do you mind if I smoke my ganja?” I said no, I actually did not mind. Taking a route taxi is basically making a contract with yourself that you are taking a risk- the drivers often drive like maniacs. I would actually prefer a mellow driver, so no, I did not mind. What I did mind was when he asked me if it was okay if he went off-route to avoid the police. This is not unusual, sometimes the drivers will do this to avoid traffic. But I did not know why he wanted to avoid the police and I did not want to be alone with a driver if he went off route. So I asked him to let me off at the next bus stop, and he obliged.

I tell this story because it brings in the topic of marijuana. I have been thinking a lot about stereotyping (even more than usual) since the VW Superbowl aired last week. Since I moved here, I have refrained from discussing marijuana and the proliferation, or lack thereof. But I feel confident now in saying that its use is no more prevalent than any other place I have lived. This might be a surprise to some people. Jamaica is known for its “happy” people, the accent, its coffee, Rastafarians, the entertainment industry, beaches, and of course, marijuana.

But I feel safe in saying that the level of use here is not such that it seems out of control or influential in the daily lives of people. Why is this important for me to note? Just making a point that things are not what they seem when portrayed in media and then massaged over the years into stereotypes.

The pictures are from a beach day we had on Saturday at Fort Clarence. That is Brianna’s new tattoo- it reads “love.” Have a good Monday.

Last night, Jamaica’s version of the MTV VMAs happened. I worked with the Jamaica Gleaner social media team again, taking pictures of the night’s festivities. Actually, we focused on fashion, hence the pictures of people’s outfits. Jamaicans, in general, know how to dress. They love colour and accessories (platform shoes, purses, big jewelry). And these awards are apparently all about the fashion. People did not disappoint.

Lots of Jamaican celebrities attended, as well, like Sean Paul and Shaggy. Who got the most responses from the rowdy crowd of mostly young people? Sizzla, Bounty Killa (every time the camera landed on him, people went bananas), Konshens, Tifa, Lady Saw and Vybz Kartel (who is still incarcerated.)

As part of a grant Youth Opportunities is submitting to the European Union next week, we have been meeting with potential beneficiaries. These are residents of Allman Town, an inner-city community that has suffered from the usual problems that plague these areas: crime, violence, high illiteracy rates, teenage pregnancy, domestic violence, gang warfare and poverty. We are focusing on income-generating projects and have found several business owners who show entrepreneurial spirit, who have run a successful business, but are stalled at a subsistence level. They would benefit greatly from a small financial boost, some training in business planning, budgeting and marketing. Here is a character sketch of someone we visited today.

Miss Marcia Vidal is one of these individuals. She is a trained potter. For the past several years, she has operated a pottery business in Allman Town. Miss Vidal produces about 300 bricks per day, plus numerous other pieces of pottery that she designs herself. Her business has been incorporated for at least three years and she owns the lot on which she runs Clays.She is a member of the Exporter’s Association. In addition, it should be noted that Miss Vidal owns a restaurant on the property. It is under renovation right now, but she has a good portion of the equipment she needs, and has already lined up a manager to run it.

While Miss Vidal has a healthy business, it is being held back by a lack of production equipment. In fact, Miss Vidal demonstrated at least two pottery machines that are inoperable. Each potter’s wheel costs $75,000 to fix.She also requires a pug mill to increase production capacity, which costs roughly $500,000 (plus shipping costs, as it must be sourced from the U.S. or Canada or the U.K.) An increase in production capacity would see Miss Vidal go from employing three people to six people. In addition, this would allow Miss Vidal to provide a training facility for educational institutions such as the University of West Indies’ Geology Department and the UCC. Miss Vidal would also be able to assume a sense of corporate social responsibility if she obtained more equipment and was able to refurbish the space, as several community programs have inquired about running programs for unattached or at-risk youth to learn pottery-making at her facility.

Miss Vidal has no shortage of customer. In fact, she cannot keep up with demand. Her customers include an owner of a major fast food chain and a major department store. In her own words, Miss Vidal says she is “not going to stop because I know this is going to be tops.”

Everybody is doing what Volkswagon was hoping they would do. To be specific, talking about their latest ad, which has been released for the Superbowl. Check out the chatter here. Not sure what I think about it yet. I do know that Jamaicans are more often than not portrayed in the same way in mainstream media. I also know now that Jamaica and its people are a lot more diverse than is ever portrayed. You can say this for any nationality as it is portrayed in a one-dimensional media such as television. As someone with a solid post-modernist-influenced education, I can see both sides of the argument. I don’t think it is offensive to portray a people as “happy.” It gets dangerous, however, when we start to think in absolute terms- all Jamaicans are happy and jolly and welcoming. All Canadians are polite. All Americans are obsessed with football. All Japanese are good at math. You get the point. All we know about this ad is that some ad exec is now enjoying a healthy bonus from getting his or her commercial to go viral.