The Dead Yard

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mikesiva
Posts: 19320
Joined: Wed Mar 24, 2010 11:30 am
Location: Watford, Hertfordshire
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A member of my family gave me this book by English journo Ian Thomson, which is supposed to be a no-holds barred true guide to visiting Jamaica. But sadly, it's written by a white Englishman who just visited Jamaica for a few weeks, and then suddenly considers himself to be an expert in all things Jamaican. He chats to a few people, especially white Jamaicans, and gets a lot of half-truths and hearsay that he passes off as facts. Because of his arrogance, he has made a string of snide remarks, innuendoes, stereotypes, and inaccuracies, which I will outline here....

1) He says that white Jamaicans are called "local whites" (p5). My wife's best friend is a white Jamaican, and she says she's never been called a "local white" in her 50 years of existence.

2) He says, "In spite of the British legacy, Jamaica has one of the highest illiteracy rates in the English-speaking Caribbean." (p5). He goes on to say, "Illiteracy rates in Jamaica currently stand at between 13 and 15 per cent." (p30). Now, this is where his lack of knowledge about the country is exposed. If he had read "Beautiful Jamaica" by Jamaican journalist/novelist Evon Blake (1980), he would've seen that when Jamaica gained independence from the British, the colonial masters' "legacy" was that more than 50 per cent of the Jamaican population was illiterate, thanks to a deliberate policy by the British of not educating the black majority. So, 13-15 per cent is an improvement on that. Any unbiased book would've included that fact. This is why I prefer to read travel books written by either people who are from the country, or lived in the country for a number of years, over some charlatan who's visited for a few weeks and claims to be an expert.

3) He says that during a hurricane, "Most of the shoppers were reportedly women: the men were busy bracing themselves with rum." I find that very offensive....when I was bracing for Hurricane Gilbert in 1988, I was taping louvred windows, chopping overhanging trees, etc, and that's what all my male friends were doing. None of us were drinking rum. I've got a newsflash for Mr Thomson - Jamaican men are not the alcoholics that Englishmen are...he should look a little closer to home when making these stupid, throwaway comments.

4) He says that Norman Manley became prime minister in 1955 (p33). Wrong...he became premier. The post of prime minister did not exist until independence in 1962. A more informed writer, such as Jamaican Evon Blake, would not make that silly mistake....

5) He says that one of his subjects, "was careful not to talk to the locals in patwa (sic), which might have insulted their dignity, and possibly led to violence." (p44). What a load of rubbish! I don't know of any such situation...sounds like somebody was spinning this poor fool a yarn, and he swallowed it, hook, line and sinker.

6) He says that, "Homosexuals are occasionally stoned, 'cutlassed', shot and raped." (p46). Hearsay...he's taking rumour for fact. I've heard these rumours before, only for them to have been found to be totally without substance.

7) This one's classic...."So, Jamaican mothers, with their spoiling ways, have helped to create an 'almost entirely feminine' environment for their male offspring, argued the Jamaican journalist Morris Cargill in a 1965 essay. Unfortunately, there is no father-image to leaven the imbalance; so while the boy may, and usually does, grow up into 'a fine example of the masculine physique', according to Cargill, his attitude to life is 'extraordinarily feminine'. Jamaican men may compensate for their 'femininity' by a precarious, over-exaggerated masculinity, which can express itself, like a long-pent-up balloon, in eruptions of violence and even sexual peculiarity." (pp46-7). What a load of rubbish! THis man is quoting an article by a racist, white Jamaican, who has long been discredited with writing trash....
:lol:
8) This guy is obsessed with talking to white Jamaicans, and he quotes what they say as if they're fact. He says that a certain McConnell's mother was murdered in 1967, "a killing that shocked even Jamaica" (p51). That implies that Jamaica had a history of gun murders in 1967, and I spoke to my mother about that, and she said that Jamaica was quiet then, and the murders only came in the 1970s. A Jamaican writer such as Evon Blake would not have made that mistake....as for "shocking" Jamaica, my mother doesn't remember hearing anything about this so-called McConnell murder.

9) Thomson has a completely warped version of Jamaican history. In talking about the 1938 strike and riots at Frome estate in Westmoreland, he claims that the only people shot were the white owners and managers (p67). However, when you read CV Black's much more reliable 'History of Jamaica' (p229), a lot of black strikers were killed by a trigger-happy police force. There's no mention of that in Thomson's white-biased narrative....

10) He says that residents of the Kingston suburb of Patrick City lived in fear of the nearby "Brooke Valley badlands" (p71). Well, when I first met my wife, she lived in Patrick City, and I moved in with her, and I didn't even know where Brooke Valley was, much less live in fear of it....

11) He quotes a returning resident as saying that Jamaicans "rarely queued, they argued noisily and in public, and they were uneducated" (p80). Much like London, then!
:lol:
More to come....
8-)
mapoui2
Posts: 2106
Joined: Sun Jun 02, 2013 3:19 pm

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not precisely on topic mike, but let me take this opportunity to apologise for my put-down of yardies not to far back here, precipitated by general yardie anti-west indian commentary on the question of going it alone in cricket.

I remembered for example on the green-eyed board I had developed a thread praising yardies on their general pro-west indian behaviour in very tough circumstances like back in the day in england, during the mass migratory period when west indians ran into prolonged rabid racism in england.

I remember interviewing several people on this issue including Reg Samuels an Antiguan who swore by the impressive power and organisation of the yardies in england in the 19 fifties..who met west indians on arrival, helped them to settle by guiding them to housing and needed services, set up many themselves. according to Samuels were it not for the jamaicans things would have been even more difficult back in those day and many would not have settled at all.

I had forgotten about all of that history and that thread in which I celebrated the yard and yardies for their historical west indian solidarity... I know that thread did not make several people on that board happy, Including the man StevieC, who clearly was not happy with it.

but I did not care.

personally I got lost in my own deep tribulations for a long time. depressed and angry I forgot much and nearly lost my soul. I lost perspective on just about everything. I went to far on the yard for their cricket perspective..those perspectives reported. those could hardly have been representative of what all Yardies think about west indies cricket.

nice commentary above.
you are a solid west indian mike..progressive one..not a straw one. no doubt about that. glad to have met you
mapoui2
Posts: 2106
Joined: Sun Jun 02, 2013 3:19 pm

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well..a least I apologised based on some real history. and because it is indeed true I wont remove my apology

but it appears mike does not care!

oh well!
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