I contributed to this piece for Reuters on U.S. Ambassador to Jamaica Donald Tapia’s tweets on social media. They’ve since been deleted, and the Jamaican government, the State department and local US reps all declined to comment when I called them for a response.
This is a building in an inner-city community off Spanish Town Road. A mural urges residents to “stop di crime.”
This man, I believe his name is Johnny Broom, makes and sells brooms for $200JMD in Whitfield Town, a poor community in Kingston (I never know how to properly describe these communities- “inner-city”? poor? rough? tough? lower socio-economic status? The point is, how do you describe a community as poor, or less-advantaged, and does it matter? I think it does, as these injustices and poor living conditions must be highlighted until they change. But the stigmatization and stereotypes that come with these labels don’t every help the situation…) Anyway, Johnny Broom was happy to greet and talk to a group of people on a media tour. He sells his products, built from bamboo, around the area.
Koffee and Buju Banton have released a video for their song “Pressure”, which is about the BLM movement and the ravages of COVID.
When things seem a little heavy these days, which is almost all the time for most people, I think, there are moments of escape everywhere. At the end of the day, when it is cooler and the sun is setting, we go outside. The light is golden and the air is less oppressive. All that matters is walking to the top of the hill and seeing how fast we can ride down on our new bikes. And I forget the troubles for a short while.
