Probably you are I told Afflicted. On one hand Bruce Golding’s become the fall guy for decades of garrison politics from both parties but on the other hand, he did lie.

And then, our Prime Minister was the politician who famously distanced himself from garrison politics far, far over the hill with the National Democratic Movement. Well, until he wanted the top job and had to rejoin the Jamaica Labour Party to get it.

And so he took up the ultimate JLP garrison seat of West Kingston. And after a massive tropical storms and recession (c’mon the poor guy’s just salt!), the United States (bigger hypocrites) make a move for Dudus, the biggest Don of the party they helped arm during the Cold War.

Poor Bruce, all alone as a one man fable for the failure of Jamaican society and politics. It sucks being left on your own. How about the other 59 MPs join him in purgatory?

Today’s tweets by @afflictedyard (marginally more sense than Daryl Vaz):

• RT @bruceJLP: Am I the only person who feels sorry for Bruce…? /via @afflictedyard•Nah you can be damn sure I feel sorry for myself…
• Nayga dem run up and dung with AK rifle and big up Prezzi at dance and uptown brown girl a dance to dat…#hypocrites
• Since most people see Dudus as Jamaican Robin Hood why dem vexx now that the Sherrif hire big lawyer fi defend against Yankee badmine?
• But Bruce a defend di Prezident and if him nuh hire big lawyer fi him di people a go call him battyman at dancehall session
• So Bruce is a PARIAH because 1) he defend Don that the people big up every day 2) Peter Phillips seh he’s a Liard 3) Dancehall CD nah sell

Read more:

Jamaica’s great hypocritical outrage by Sherman (Sherman in farin who don’t like Bruce)
http://twitter.com/afflictedyard

Jamaica has become a violent and heartless country where most people have become desensitised to things that would make people in civilised places pass out. Something is blatantly wrong but everyone goes on with their daily life like everything is fine, wake up my people and smell the stench of death around us.

We need to stop hiding behind the excuse that the person must have been involved in some kind of mix up to justify the violence that is perpetrated against them. This is the excuse we use to reassure ourselves that things are not as bad as it seems. Some will wait for a general feel good march or some kind of PR feel good stunt that makes uptown people go back home feeling like they have done their part in curbing the violence…

After the apparent attempted assassination of Oneil Edwards from the group Voicemail the other day, the emotional bandwagonists were out in full force on Facebook, Twitter and the other social media. There were people gathering in Half-Way-Tree and outside Kingston Public Hospital.

I am truly sorry for Oneil, I do not know him personally but my anger is the same for any innocent hard working person who is gunned down by these animals. I however will not be a part of the hypocrisy that the music and media fraternity is promoting.

Where was their anger and sympathy when two children were brutally murdered last week? Where was the mourning and condemnation for the assassination for Dennis Hamilton, soon after he participated in exposing alleged fraud at the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica? This man died for an honourable cause and all he got was three sentences written about him in one of the major newspapers, yet we give coverage to any dribble these entertainers utter?

We are a hypocritical set of people and I am waiting for Beenie Man and company’s self-satisfying musical tributes to come out. The usual suspects, including the Minister of Culture will do the media walk and talk; The church will jump in with calls for various peace marches, the talk shows will have the usual rhetoric and the calls for the death penalty, then finally the ultimate cry of “Bring Back Adams!”.

We have seen it already. STOP!

When the nation is appalled at student athletes being denied visa’s to participate at the Penn Relays but not a blip when women and children and viciously being raped and murdered every single day, something is definitely wrong with our priorities. Jamaica’s murder rate for 2010 is about four-and-a-half persons per day and people who have lived in civilised country are supposed to move back to that?

I think about my uncle who was so optimistic about the formation of the National Democratic Movement and the prospect of being a part of a new movement in Jamaica, that illusion was quickly erased when a gun was stuck in his face at the entrance to his home in Meadowbrook with his two children in his car that the gunmen wanted.

My uncle now lives happily outside of Toronto in a place that he calls civilised and has no plans to move back to Jamaica, This was a man who swore that his son had to follow in his footstep and go to his alma mater in Jamaica. I use to think he was a sellout but now I realise that he just saw the decay through very clear eyes.

I am angry, angry that I need more fingers than I have to count the number of friends and acquaintances that have been brutally murdered in Jamaica in the past 15 years. I am scared for my family that still live in Jamaica because it can be any one of them the next time. Some people are going to be offended but I don’t care if I can get some kind of movement going. The night is turning to day and eventually a lot of you same hypocrites will have to run away because some of you are the breeders, supporters and instigators of these murderers.

I am suggesting that we start having an intelligent national conversation, without the ignorant rhetoric amongst ourselves to find solutions to this murderous cancer that is devouring our country. Time and history has proven that violence against violence has not worked and Senior Superintendent Renato Adams is not our saviour.

It is time to make real demands for action from our failed MPs that have been cuddling and serving gunmen and criminals instead of creating a safe atmosphere for business to strive. Full support must be given but pressure must be kept on our new police commissioner to be vigilant in his drive to arrest and eliminate the criminals in the Jamaica Constabulary Force.

Finally, everyone has to make a serious call for Prime Minister Bruce Golding to resign because he has deserted his leadership of the country to serve the interest of his garrison.

Previously by Sherman:
Jamaica nuff problems…by Sherman
The Cancer in Jamaican music
This is Stone Love at The Tropics Nightclub in 1985…

Contact Sherman:
Email: blazetv@gmail.com
Twitter: Twitter.com/justsherman

Dubious fame:
Sherman in Observer

While FIRST has mixed feelings about the decision of the United States to cancel the visas of some of Jamaica’s best-known entertainers the incident is also a mixed blessing. Okay, as @afflictedyard reckons, America’s behaviour maybe “fascist” and “petty” but as @BigBlackBarry was saying last night, this might be actually be a necessary sacrifice to help the music renew itself.

Regardless of the Dudus extradition matter, its almost certain that the five artists were targeted as a retaliation for the stance of the Golding administration, even if it could be argued that these artists were already flirting with the proverbial no-fly list. There have been bans and there have been other visa cancellations – of which this was the most high-profile. And of course, the obviously bored officials at the U.S. Embassy can only be helped by instances like Trooper’s brilliant but self-destructive rant on ‘YouChuuuuube’.

“I was just having a conversation last night with a friend when it dawned on me that maybe the rest of the world who love reggae might actually be trying to save it from Jamaica. Even though we invented it, we are the ones that are now trying to destroy it with all the fuckery that is going on. There is something in the Jamaican psyche that whenever they put out something good we turn around and try to destroy it as if to prove to the world that we can do it again or maybe its a need for competition, we build and destroy instead of building and then building better,” said @DatNiggaSherman.

The music is also in a creative drought – one symptom of the sickness affected the Jamaican music, irrespective of the worldwide decline of the recording industry. Artists just aren’t prepared or educated enough about the realities of the business. Instead they’re cultivated only as one more machine in the riddim production line.

Jamaican artists are declining in wealth and opportunity caused by our declining worth to the foreign market not helped by their unprofessional reputation. We have long been no more than an accent to lend flavour to another average track by a larger foreign artist, as functional and generic as the video that accompanies it.

It’s hard to think back and imagine when last a Jamaican album had genuine musical influence on the overseas market while even successful singles are based on old riddims e.g. Junior Gong’s ‘Welcome to Jamrock’ and Buju Banton’s ‘Driver A’. And then when VP had an album as great as Sizzla’s ‘Real Thing’ they were unable to make it crossover.

We can criticise the US and yes, let’s not take this as bait, but perhaps it’s high time the players in Jamaican music start asking themselves a lot of questions; and for these high profile artists to become more streetwise and gain an understanding of modern business beyond simply having a MySpace page.

Related posts:

Three questions for Jamaican DJ’s from ‘bigblackbarry’
The Cancer in Jamaican music

Successive administrations have mismanaged, misappropriated and now this administration has finally sold Air Jamaica. I am disappointed but I understand the need to get rid of the national airline. It has been such a financial drain on Jamaica for so long. Why should we be angry now?

When it was alleged that the airline was being used as if it was a car service/delivery van by its executives, why weren’t we angry then? When an executive had a departing Air Jamaica return to the gate to pick up her friend, why weren’t we angry then? When Bruce Golding shuffled that executive around like a game of musical chair instead of firing her, why weren’t we angry then? Because everything in Jamaica is “no problem mon.”

We as Jamaican’s have long learnt to adapt to adversity and banded our belly when necessary. Now we are like frogs in a pot of water with the temperature slowly rising. We are now feeling the heat but it seems we lack the strength or sense urgency to jump out.

We keep recycling the same set of stale failed politicians, the same one track minded hit men police, and the same failed business executive for financial guidance. We cling to the same old way of doing things even with diminishing or no returns.

The so-called intellectuals at UWI have become aspiring dancehall kings and queens, instead of articulating solutions and mental upliftment they have started worshiping at the altar of ignorance.

For our crime problems we have had The Eradication Squad, Operation Ardent, Acid and Kingfish to name a few anti-crime initiatives over the years. We actually boast about the killer policemen we have in the Jamaica Constabulary Force and what has been our reward? Do we them need kill more people?

A friend of mine recently commented to me that the country is being run like a go-go club; appearances are enticing but the aim is to take your money, screw you and leave you to die from some rotting disease you contracted. I no longer see PNP or JLP I just see a disease slowly rotting away the fabric of a once proud, productive and progressive country.

We need help. We need a change. We need to start looking within ourselves and stop making excuses and admit that we have not seen any upward trajectory in Jamaica for a while now. We need to acknowledge that we need a long term plan.

We need new, intelligent and unselfish leadership, the PNP and JLP no longer care about us.

We need real moral leadership as the religious leaders have failed us.

We need a new police force as the current one is no better than the gunmen; and sometimes they are the gunmen that hunt us.

Look around you, there are absolutely no plans for the country’s future being put forth by the political leaders. They are too busy protecting their political henchmen and figuring out new ways to tax the citizens with nothing reciprocated in return.

When are we going to stop saying “Jamaica no problem” and stand up like Paul Bogle? The country can’t even efficiently deliver water, which is a natural resource. How are we going to move forward without the basic necessity of water? I was in home in Jamaica during 2008 and there was always water lock off and there was no drought then. We have become too lackadaisical in our demands and have lowered the bar until it is now on the ground. It seems that we no longer care. When will there be a push back against political incompetence, political ignorance, the wave of violence and the state sponsored terrorists we call a police force?

In a 1973 speech, Former Prime Minister Michael Manley said “Change is the willingness to look at your system and have the courage to know what is wrong.”

Jamaica we need change, then we need a revolution.

Previously by Sherman:

The Cancer in Jamaican music
This is Stone Love at The Tropics Nightclub in 1985…

Contact Sherman:

Email: Blazetv@gmail.com
Twitter: Datniggasherman