Source: Flickr via Reddit

When Digicel arrived to break-up the lousy Cable & Wireless monopoly we all cheered. And now, “I can badly hear what your saying…my credit just ran out!”

All along MiPhone has been a sleepy third place company. But that was until the world’s second richest man Carlos Slim of America Movil (AMX) – Bill Gates is poorer – bought the company.

Among other things they’re making aggressive noises about their main competitor. Oh, and they have the exclusive rights to the Apple iPhone in Jamaica, which will run on their soon-to-launch 3G network.

The Mexican owners are accusing Digicel of using ‘monopolistic’ powers to drive up the cost of calls. That’s the same cost of calls that the Irish-based company has used to fund expansion into other developing countries in the Caribbean, Latin America and Pacific regions.

So have we exchanged one monopoly in Jamaica for another? We’re too nice.

Read more HERE

Source: Jamaica Observer

A long, long time before butu tourism. So old they were actually encouraging them to come to Kingston.

Art.com has a wide range of vintage tourism posters from here and the Caribbean, especially Cuba.

See more HERE

Source: BNN

And today we have the deejays…

These black and whites spent 45 years stuck in the archives of Columbia Records and then in the attic of the widow of photographer Marvin Koner.

Just before Cash made it big.

See more HERE

Source: The Guardian

Indeed, with RCA alumni like Peter Horbury (who brought Volvo back from the edge) and Peter Schreyer who designed the original Audi TT, suddenly the idea of ditching dentistry for design classes may not mean the automatic disinheritance you were expecting. That is, if you can draw cars and don’t colour them outside of the lines.

See what we’re talking about by looking at these submissions from RCA students to the 2008 Pilkington Automotive Vehicle Design Awards. Pretty interesting designs even if you get the feeling that they would look a lot better if there were girls in metal bikini’s standing near them.

See the doodles HERE

Source: Wallpaper

July 4, Coney Island, New York.

It’s a muggy 90 degrees near Rockaway beach when I finally made it to the front of Nathan’s Famous on Surf Avenue. I had just missed the annual hot dog eating contest ( defending champion Joey Chestnut won in overtime) and there was a huge wad purple chewing gum stuck to the bottom of my shoe.

Looking around at the throngs of people, it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff all going on at once in such a seemingly crammed space. Not that Coney Island is small, but the crowds on this July 4 Friday seem to engulf everything in its path. The rickety rides, the ticket booths, the boardwalk and even the beach itself are awash with New Yorkers, New Jerseyers and what appears to be their entire extended families. A bluish haze hangs over the crowd right down to the beach where thousands of umbrellas are clustered together, growing thicker in density as I walk towards to water.

Children of all ages squeal and tear left and right, sometimes falling (or diving) into the massive water-filled holes in the wet grey sand that have been escavated with plastic shovels, styrofoam cups and shorn Pepsi bottles. They remind me a little of pictures I’ve seen of bomb craters.

At the shoreline, people thrash about in the murky water as a helicopter thumps low overhead, sending ripples across the water and breaking up the haze for a few moments as it moves to the west, searching for adventurous swimmers or perhaps another shark like the 200-pound Maco that two fishermen reeled in here last September.

Back on the boardwalk, a heavy Brooklyn accent hurls insults at a crowd gathered in front of a dreary-looking pit under a banner that reads ‘Shoot the Freak.’

“Yeah you in the blue hat and the yellow pants. Ya reject, yeah I’m talking to you. I like yo’ skanky little girlfriend there you little freakin’ midget. Yeah baby, lick ya fingas. I like the way you lick yah fingas like that you little freak. Ya…what a rush.”

Off to the right a loud dispute erupts between a ice-drink vendor and a scalded red Jerseyite. He has been waiting too long. She doesn’t give a f***.

The argument escalates as the ice-vendor, a stout Latina with orange hair, lets loose a proper fourth of July burst of insults that sends the man walking away, threatening to come back before bumping into a couple of fat cops who tell him to keep moving.

“What a wuss,” says the voice from the nearby freakshow, “what a rush”.

Hybrid cars also in Jamaica…not cheap though.

Read more HERE

Source: Jamaica Observer

Is there hope for us, at all? But as the Economist noticed about the local private sector, their spineless offer of a US$7,000 reward won’t take us very far.

Read more HERE

Source: The Economist