6 ms·
The Binoculars of Jah
- keithpeter 10y agoWow, memories. Peter Tosh made the most impression my memory of those times (Birmingham resident, not part of the culture).
- paxcoder 10y agoThat's what you think is a must-read, upvoters? Could it be because you're missing God so sorely that you enjoyed this story about the "spiritual" so much?
- posterboy 10y agoI suppose it's mere cargo culting. A rastafari would hardly visit a moloch born of babylon, like HN.
- to3m 10y agoNo.
- dang 10y agoPlease don't do this here.
- paxcoder 10y agoWhat, speaking my mind as a theist?
- dang 10y agoWhat you describe that way, others might call a religious harangue. Usually when people say "speaking my mind" they mean venting. Venting is bad for civil discussion because it doesn't take others into account. It's only concerned with discharging one's own feeling. That hits others, who happen to have different associations than you do, with unexpected force, provoking discharges of their own—and so on and so on. Everybody feels justified because it always feels like the other hit first. This is how we get religious flamewars and other degenerations, so it's important that we all learn to inhibit our ventings and transmute them into civil, substantive discussion.
- paxcoder 10y agoI disagree that my comment was uncivil and without substance. My question is honest. My provocation is meant for the soul. I am sorry for not being kind.
- nikhizzle 10y agoSomewhat 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.
- manumit 10y ago>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. This is the most tragic legacy of the transatlantic slave trade, and the degree to which it obliterated the indigenous cultures of most Caribbean islands, replacing it with the pure violence of subjugation.
- bertomartin 10y agoI'm pretty sure not everyone in Indian regards the Raj as favorably as your parents. Some people in Jamaica do think the way your parents do, about the British. This is more than colonialism though. This poverty has a lot to do with cold war politics and meddling by world powers. It's surprising, such as small island, why even bother? But this happened in the 70s and 80s. It's well documented, you can read about it. Education and opportunity would help to eradicate a lot of the crime in Jamaica. First, the younger people needs to see successful Jamaicans in good positions and understand that they got there through education. A lot of kids aspire to be Reggae stars, because they're influenced by the success of Reggae icons. Not many such influences are apparent with well educated Jamaicans. They're not 'stars'. I think India does well because they put a premium on education and kids that do well are rewarded.
- qplex 10y agoIt 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.
- caribbeanman 10y agoThough 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.