As someone puts it, Jamaica has an old soul. Although it is still young in economy, urban and industrial development, but it is a country with a rich history- and layers waiting to be uncovered. Raggae music aside, it has had a colorful political journey (though this has worked against the progress of the country over the last few decades).
The Jamaicans often compare themselves with Singapore, and Minister Mentor LKY had visited it during the sixties. Till this day, they still remember that he took the Jamaican ideas and plucked it into Singapore. And he famously said that Jamaica had everything going for it, but the people were its biggest problem- they just love to have fun too much.
I guess there has to be some truth to that, the rich poor divide today is pretty heart-breaking. But I must say that there are so many brilliant Jamaicans. I have been so impressed, with not just their knowledge, experience and calibre, but also all of their hearts and desires to see Jamaican flourish. Of course, I take it with a grain of salt. There are some policies I do not understand (30% interest rates??!!), and there must be still some hidden problems that have kept foreign investments at bay. While waiting for the gap between talk and action being bridged, I can only pray that the gap between the rich and the poor do not increase at too fast a rate.
We spent most of our time in Kingston, where all the government offices were. There is definitely much room for city development. Arthur had back-to-back meetings with the rest of the delegation while I was mostly stuck in the hotel working. Too many and long heavy dinners with officials, and businessmen left us drained, often wishing that the evening would end earlier.
The most touristy things we did were over last weekend. We visited Vernom field- a large open space that the government was looking to develop into an airport hub (err… which I think would take a couple of decades, and “potential” was the buzz word). Then, we went to the milk river bath, which was one of the most radioactive waters in the word- supposedly good for health and had healing properties. In the evening, we stayed over in Aloysius’ “godfather”’s- Uncle Billy’s house, and had the experience of a lifetime of attending a Free Masons (a gentlemen secret society, Dan Brown uses them a lot, go google!) dinner. In midst of it all, we also visited coffee and rum factories.
Food was fun- I really enjoyed the Jamaican fare. The top 5 foods that I love are- Jerk chicken, ackee and salt fish, plantain, mangos (so many different types!), and ginnip. Okie dokes, a pretty long tweet.. here’s some pictures, enjoy!
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