The Binoculars of Jah

Somewhat tangential. I went to Jamaica with my pregnant wife in 2012. At the time of our arrival I did not realize that we were visiting a country with omnipresent violent crime. During our visit, we had (very luckily) a small taste of this crime, but consequently also were given a chance to understand the situation.

We casually strolled through the crowds in Ocho Rios and enjoyed the beach and the novel sites. For example, a dreadlocked older gentleman with a grocery bag chock full of ganja openly selling such in the central town square.

We were staying in a very nice hotel, and one side of our room was on land, the other was cantilevered over the ocean. On day five of our visit, this vista turned out to be a liability. While we are at dinner, marauders arrived in a boat, climbed into our room, and fleeced everything that was easily accessible. We are careful travelers and so stored most valuables in the safe (which also stunk like ganja). The total damage was around $150, but mentally we were afraid.

As part of the investigation, an extraordinarily kind local policeman was sent by to take our statement. He spent 15 minutes on the crime, and then another 2 hours chatting with us. He was erudite and well spoken, and gave us his take in detail of why the country was the way it was. He conjectured that extreme disparity between rich and poor, a history of colonial violence, and lack of accessible quality education had set them up for failure.

I was born in India, and have spent about 1/4 of my life there (as a member of the upper middle class). My grandparents view of the British Raj was very benign and shared by their peers. I wonder what it is that led to one perception in India and another in Jamaica, both poor countries, but one which lives in fear of violence.

Though I somewhat enjoyed the article it reeks of the kind of nonsense about Caribbean culture that those JCBs("just come back") like to perpetuate. They seem to have the most incite about the Caribbean though their only real contact with the culture is through parents and grandparents who left the islands decades ago. They believe that their summer vacations count as real experience and are the ones that people not from the islands get to hear about.

"Obeah" for instance is not a Jamican thing. It's an Afro-Caribbean thing with direct roots to Benin in Africa, the birthplace of what popular media calls Vodoo. Arguably it's practiced more in the southern Caribbean and Guyana than in Jamaica. Not to mention Haiti.

All this to say is that these know it all "foreigners" really paint a picture of the Caribbean that is thoroughly inaccurate. But I suppose they are the ones with access to running water and flushing toilets so maybe people like me who actually live here are not healthy enough to express our own experiences as eloquently as they can after coming on vacation.

It is always amazing to me how much power supernatural nonsense has over some people.

I consider myself very lucky to have grown up in a no-nonsense environment.

Wow, memories. Peter Tosh made the most impression my memory of those times (Birmingham resident, not part of the culture).