Kingston after the Assault
An extremely painful and emotional video featuring residents who lived through the 4 day assault on their neighborhood in Tivoli Garden, Kingston, Jamaica.
Stress, murder and hunger. Much of the dialog is in the native Patois dialect but even if you don't understand what they're saying, you will feel the pain.
Stefan Roots
ReplyDeleteYou ought to be a shame of yourself for continuing to sensationalize this story. Yes we sympathize with the plight of these poor innocent people. But your motives here are seriously suspect. Why are you targeting Jamaicans? Mexico borders the United States and there are much bigger issues coming out of that country with drugs, assault weapons, and immigration. It is people like you who give journalism a bad name.
“Patois” as you call it is not a native language. British English is the official language. “Patois” is a broken form of English much like your “Ebonics” or slang terminology here. In the poorer areas, people will speak these languages. Because the conflict is in the poorer area, you get to hear the dialect as these people express their emotions. This is not characteristic of all Jamaica or for all Jamaicans. Some Jamaicans actually are educated and can express themselves clearly without translation. Your choice of words toward Jamaicans in your blog is unfortunate and therefore makes your blog discouraging.
ReplyDeleteCould it be that you had a disagreement with one Jamaican and now you are taking it out on all of us. This is very bias reporting.
ReplyDeletePatois is like ebonics. I'll accept that. They are both dialects, not language. That's why I didn't call patois a language.
ReplyDeleteMost bloggers are not journalist, although some journalist have become bloggers. I'm an engineer, not a journalist.
Journalist are the ones that usually earn a degree and work for media outlets. Some put their lives on the line and go right into a conflict area and bring us stories that we would never see otherwise.
Bloggers are lazy decimators of the product that journalist put out. Some of us are more opinionated than others but most of us serve a particular audience who we provide content of interest to.
Since my freshman year of college when I roomed for 2 years with the first Jamaican I've ever met, I've been very found of the people, their culture, music and especially their food (ask the folks at OB's). Living in Flatbush Brooklyn with an apartment full of Jamaicans was a treat. Maybe that's why I'm so sensitive to this story.
By reporting it to the Chester audience, who in my independent survey have no idea that anything is going on down there, is not an attempt to exploit Jamaica but to inform Chesterites.
So, what is my motive?
From my perspective, what's happening in Tivioli Gardens could happen in Highland Gardens, the Bennett Homes, the William Penn or any other poor neighborhood where people have lost hope in local government and become loyal to the people who take care of them.
Not so long ago, Chester had a few 'celebrity' criminals running drugs and numbers and who had ties with local politicians. Thankfully, the Feds came in and cleaned up the mess before things got out of hand. Fortunately those criminals were in it for personal gain and didn't get to the point where they were using their money to provide social services to a community who couldn't get them from their local government.
Kingston is an example of what happens when it does get out of hand. My sharing this story isn't an attempt to exploit the people who are held hostage in their neighborhoods, or to glorify the gangsters who turned many of them into loyal followers.
What it does show is how awkward and dangerous a situation can become when the government has to part ways with their criminal relationships and how pathetic that it's their constituents that must suffer.
Could this same thing happen in Chester? Just look at the current survey. Only 5% of the respondents believe that their city politicians are effective. Does that mean that this community is ripe for some 'Godfather' figure to come in and lead Chester people totally away from government? The thought is scary.
My suggestion to Anonymous to take your attention off of the me, the messenger, and let the readers know what your opinion is off the Jamaica story.
Do you feel that the story is an internal Jamaican story that should stay in Jamaica and not be shared?
Do you sympathize or criticize the hostages of Tivoli?
Do you support the government or Mr. Coke?
What exactly should we Americans take away from this tragedy?
You seem to know a lot of what's going on. Please share.
You make some good points. As a Jamaican American, I am loyal to the country I have been in the longest and have my citizenship, America. Since Jamaica is where I was born, I will always have some connection. I am very defensive when it comes to people criticizing or talking negatively about Jamaicans. Their motives are suspect to me. They always want to talk about drugs or imitate the dialect which is not fair when there are a considerate amount of Jamaicans who are educated. Sometimes people portrait others in a negative way as to appear superior to them.
ReplyDeleteNow that you have clarified your connection to the Jamaican people, I can understand somewhat. I am not sure since I have been personally involved in some way. It was hard for me to watch the video. To answer your questions: Of course I sympathize with the Jamaican citizens. I do not support the government or Coke. I have been hearing for years that the government is corrupt and in that case needs to be cleaned up. I don’t support illegal drugs. I have also had discussions at OB’s and with others. My primary concern is as a tourist with plans to visit. I think the story should be shared but not necessarily by you since I thought your primary focus was Chester. What should Americans take away from this tragedy? I guess it will be based on what the media puts out. I would recommend if they are planning to visit do not go to Kingston at this time. Although, there are very beautiful parts in Kingston that you don’t hear about because of the violence in this one concentrated area, it should be safe for tourist to visit the other side of the island. So don’t change your vacation plans if you plan a visit to Jamaica. People still go to Mexico and look what’s happening there. Do your research and decide for yourself.