Jamaica is 50 this year, boy if you missed that you must have been in a coma for more than a year, because the buzz surrounding our half -a- century anniversary has been nothing less than CONSTANT.

Now, we all know that Jamaica has the most churches per square mile [ funny enough I was looking for the source of this "fact" and all the websites stated the Guinness Book of World Records as the source but there was no trace of it on their website...] and people are very sensitive about religion, generally... So I know this blog post may cause some amount of controversy, but these things need to be said. For the purposes of this post "religion" and "church lessons" will refer to Christianity and its teachings as declared by some denominations.

 Did you miss me? Let's hope so... I was having an intellectual conversation with a group of intelligent graduates recently (bear with me as I create the scenario) and we were discussing the issue of social class in Jamaica and whether  identity is a product of social class or if it is an independent entity. In arguing either point of view the factor of perception came in: whether the person wants be perceived as the class they belong to or another group. Let's look at how all this affects....  di loose hole gyal . Social Class refers to a certain stratification within society where its members share common characteristics: be it in concepts about political, economic and social structures, be it colour... whatever it may be... they have some common characteristics. Identity is defined as a person's conception and expression of their individuality or group affiliations (eg: cultural identity). We see then that identity is a fully  SUBJECTIVE phenomenon. Need ...

This is the phone I've had for some time... the BlackBerry 9800 ... At first I didn't want this phone because I know how clumsy I am and a touch screen phone was never in my thoughts, and then it was also a SLIDE UP phone.... I swore (thankfully not on my life nor any of my family members') that I wouldn't get this phone... But months later look who is in love with her BlackBerry 9800.

Upon leaving high school I had not yet decided what I wanted to become. For years I was told  "Yuh chat nuff, yuh a go tun lawyer"   so I thought about that for a while. The time came for us to apply to University and being one of the few persons not interested in going to do a first degree abroad, I applied locally. Just for the heck of it I applied to law, as my mother said  "to keep options open" . But I knew I wouldn't get in. I then chose CARIMAC and my 3rd choice was Psychology/Sociology and I also applied to UTECH. I waited impatiently as the "barely there" mail system  in my community failed day after day, week after week to  furnish me with a letter of acceptance from ... anywhere.As the clock ticked and nobody called me from the CARIMAC office to say I was accepted I began to lose all hope of  gaining a tertiary education. I re-played the test in my head for weeks to ascertain what I had done wrong - why I hadn't gotten a cal...

This morning I left my house in my usual mood, ready to take on the world (ye, right... we all know I was sleepy as heck and still a bit groggy). So when I stumbled upon a huge police operation a stone's throw from my gate, I was less than pleased. Of course driving the "police magnet" (a Toyota Corolla) they stopped me.  The look on the police man's face was pretty pleasant, not the usual screw face. He asked me whose vehicle it was, asked for the papers for the car, asked to see in the trunk and then asked for my driver's license.

T hat strange gap between leaving school and finding a job is an awkward place to be. So many things running through your head as you live day by day unemployed; hunting, searching, hoping for that one break. Nobody wants to start at the bottom. Nobody would choose to start at the bottom. But we don't have a choice when we humble ourselves and apply for those jobs, selling ourselves like prostitutes - or more appropriately - field slaves; Showcasing our best qualities like we're up for sale... and we are. We want our future employers to buy into the ideas that we have created with our resume and cover letter.