Christmas Memories Of Montego Bay

I remember Christmas 🎄 about the time I was in high school, getting so excited to put on my best outfit 👗 and then taking a taxi to go to Sam Sharpe square downtown Montego Bay 🏬 🏝 so I can walk around and see what everybody else is wearing! That was the most exciting thing in the world for me to do! I would walk the entire St James Street go into every single store including Salmon Photo Studio 📸 your so that I can look at other people’s pictures and faas in people business and see who was taking picture with who! Who get married 🤵🏾‍♂️👰🏾‍♀️💍who have baby 👶🏽Then walking to Fontana Pharmacy ( which sold prescription drugs and boutique items) to look at things I couldn’t afford and wish I was an adult with a job so I could buy some of these things. Then walk along bottom road by the beach 🏖 🌊 and Pier One, Craft Market, walk past Pelican Grill 🍱🍹🥗and wonder when I would have money to order a glass of water from that restaurant! And throughout the whole day I would see everybody that I knew in Montego Bay wearing their best clothes too. 😄😄😄By evening time when it started to get dark I would hurry up and take a taxi 🚕 home so I wouldn’t get in trouble. Then I would lay in my room and think about all the food 🥩 🍗 🍚 🍰 I was going to eat Christmas day and wonder what gifts 🎁 I was going to get for Christmas 🎅🏾🎄😄😄😄… Wow! So many great memories! I may have to do a Part 2 to this blog…What are your favorite memories of Montego Bay during Christmas? Feel free to comment below!

New Leadership Needed

What the UK 🇬🇧 and Jamaica 🇯🇲 needs is a young leader with fresh ideas to lead the country and apply modern principles that will solve the problems of these modern times we are living in. You cannot operate a government in the year 2022 using a system that has not being changed since the year 1600. It MUST FAIL. What is needed is a young leader bold enough to revamp the entire system and start new. Which young leader will be bold enough to stand up to the British Parliament? Which young leader will be bold enough to stand up to the Jamaican government which is based on the British Parliament system? Yes respect must be given to the politicians who genuinely devoted their lives to fighting for better standards of living for the people they represent. But at some point ( before death), they need to gracefully hand the baton over to younger leadership and step back and allow a younger person to lead. They can be there for support and consultations if necessary but it’s time for a change. And can we talk about the diversity in the British Parliament? How are they going to lead a country which has become so diverse in the ethnicities of the people who live there now in the year 2022, when the leadership is not diverse. There will be no new ideas. Just building on a crumbling foundation. Doing the same thing for 400 years and expecting new results. Every good leadership model should always prepare the younger generation with the expectancy that they will be equipped with the skills required when it’s their time to lead. But when you have a system with the leaders hanging on to the political seat until death with no plans of training the youth to take over, the system MUST FAIL!!! Ok enough of my ranting mi gone again before the Facebook police come 🏃🏾‍♀️💨💨💨👮🏾‍♂️ 👮🏾 🚨

The legendary Cornaldi “Goldfinger/Goalie McGhie

The legendary Cornaldi ”Goldfinger/Goalie McGhie”. May your soul Rest In Peace. Cornaldi McGhie was a popular Montego Bay businessman. He loved his job as a JUTA bus tour driver. He built his business from his many repeat customers who enjoyed his tours when they visited Jamaica. He was a very patriotic Jamaican and believed he had a personal responsibility to educate tourists about Jamaica’s history, and to take them to the communities to meet the real people of Jamaica and give them the real Jamaican experience. He was much loved by many small business owners especially in Montego Bay because he was one of few drivers would take tourists to their businesses and not only the popular Jamaican attractions, and in this way he contributed to the local economy. He was very skilled in Jamaican culture especially music and sports and participated in community events. He also contracted with many schools in Montego Bay like Herbert Morrison Technical High School and Cornwall College to bring the students to sporting events like the Dacosts Cup matches, Boys and Girls Champs, Netball and Cricket Matches as well as transporting the school band to performances all over the island like the JCDC festival competitions. Cornaldi McGhie was very well-known and loved by his community and his legacy lives on in Montego Bay.

A Generation Of Vipers

I have been hearing this term, “a generation of vipers” used to describe the young people in Jamaica. We definitely have to take ownership of the way these young people have turned out. I am curious, if they are vipers, are we calling ourselves vipers too? How did they get to this stage? Who raised them to be like this? Did they raise themselves? Did they drop from the sky? Did they crawl out from under a rock? How did we all arrive at this place? Is your child a viper? Is your neighbor’s child a viper? At what age do they become vipers? At some point we have to take ownership of the behavior of our young people and do something about it. So that maybe, we can learn from the mistakes and correct them before the generation following them become even worse. But what can we do?

UWI Student denied PhD

This article from the Jamaican Gleaner caught my interest. " A PhD student whose thesis was rejected by The University of the West Indies in 2014 has lost her legal battle in the Court of Appeal to have a Supreme Court ruling against her overturned." The Gleaner Read more: https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20220520/students-battle-get-phd-uwi-hits-another-hurdle #GLNRToday Wow! My heart weeps for this student… Isn’t it time that UWI revise some of their ancient policies that made sense in colonial slavery days but are not relevant in these modern times? “She was advised that she had the option of referring the matter to the visitor, an official in the UWI structure who addresses disputes involving staff and students. At the time, QUEEN ELIZABETH was the visitor… 🙄🙄🙄 This is what is wrong with Jamaica. End of Story. I am very disturbed by this story. Something is not adding up. This has UWI politics written all over it. What if the student had a grievance with her professor ? Once one member of the department is against you, the entire department sides with the professor. No one in the department will side with the student. And then the academic circle is so small, what if the judge on the Supreme Court is good friends with the professor? Ten years of your life wasted fighting a system governed by four hundred year old colonial slavery policies. You can’t win. Dear student, please accept your loss and move on. Transfer your credits to a University that wants their students to succeed. You can’t win unless the public and media disgraces UWI and force them to give you justice, or that professor and the entire department resign/retire and or are somehow replaced with younger professors who passionately love students and want their students to succeed. I hope students who are seeking a University to do their graduate studies will pay close attention to this case and take their money and their talent elsewhere. I really hope this student receives justice.

Sha’Carri Richardson Trying to Win A race against Jamaican Female sprinters

After receiving some recent information, now I actually really feel sorry for Sha’Carri, I mean look at the people she is taking advice from…Justin Gatlin 🤦🏾‍♀️ she is young, mentally depressed, sexually confused, her grandmother just died, she admits that she is self medicating, she really needs some therapy! Her grandmother was probably her source of strength and motivation and now that she is gone, this young girl is in a downward spiral. I hope she gets the therapy she needs. And she really just need some time off to go humble herself and train for future track meets. And she need to take off those eyelashes because they are preventing her from seeing where she is running and that is one of the reasons she is coming last. She needs some strong, supportive people to help her get back on her A game, because right now the people in her circle are just lying to her and giving her false glorification and building up her ego so they can make as much money off her while she is young and silly and then drop her as soon as another young competitive athlete comes along. What she really needs is some people to encourage her to go and train, focus on getting the proper nutrition, getting rest, going to rehab for her drug problem and getting therapy for her confusion and delusions of grandeur thinking she can run faster than Jamaicans who are more well trained and disciplined. The other day even Adam Stewart felt sorry for her and was offering her some relaxation time at Sandals resort and because of pride she turned down the offer. She should have taken it. Anyway I sincerely wish she receives the therapy that she needs.