Jamaica International Invitational

Jamaica National Stadium

Track and Field is so big in Jamaica that politicians talk about it as a tourist-drawing goldpot that could lift the country out of its economic malaise. While that might fall on the top of the pile of other Jamaican politicians' big ideas, the fact of the matter is that Jamaica is the breeding ground of some of the fastest people in the world (currently the fastest, I do believe, in Bolt).

Last weekend was the seventh annual Jamaica International Invitational track and field meet, and event that has apparently gotten larger and larger each year. See the article from the Jamaica Observer, Stars shine! - Jeter, Sinclair, Walker cop world-leading times at JII

Green, gold and black, colors of Jamaica everywhere

Easter in Jamaica

Driving north from Kingston, up Stony Hill Road, one encounters a church every hundred yards or so in some places - almost as frequently as one passes a shack sized pub blaring music and serving rum and warm Red Stripe. In Jamaica, where religion is one of many national obsessions, Easter is not a day but week long observance,and a journey past all these houses of worship is a trip through the whole range of singing,sights and smells that is Jamaican Christianity.

Aung San Suu Kyi, live on the BBC

Consular work has given me an insight into the startling (to me) presence of a Burmese diaspora here in Jamaica. They are for the most part very well educated medical doctors, arriving in Jamaica for internships in local hospitals, most of which seem to quickly turn into jobs. Some of these migrants open practices here on the island, some move on to third countries, entering even more developed medical markets; unsurprisingly, I have not talked to a single Burmese now in Jamaica who intends to move back to Burma to take up their inevitably junta-assigned desperate provincial medical center.

The Burmese diaspora here sparks interest in following the developments back in Burma. The democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, the loudest voice of dissent against the ruling military regime, was interviewed live on the BBC's World Have Your Say program this morning, and is worth listening to.

And so it goes, 2010

Cheap Chinese firecrackers excite the New Year's Eve streets of Kingston.

“Remember, thou art mortal.”

Deep breath of MN air, Before the dive

Oh yeah, I guess it is a weekday, isn't it? One day in Minnesota, and time does funny things.
I am using the few days of leave that I have accumulated in the first few months at my job to take a timeout in my home state minnesota, to see the friends and family that I have not seen for too long and probably won't see for a while - at least two years, anyway, the length of my tour in Kingston.

Arriving early Tuesday morning, it was a day of Minneapolis, of my favorite people, my old haunts. Even in those moments that I was simply alone, I was in physical locations that have left their images, smells, feels burned on my soul. Much has changed here in Uptown, of course, but two years is not enough to wash away the aesthetic, pace, and people that make this place more "home" than most places.

And today, after a far too short breakfast with sister Katie before she is off to her new job, it is North, to my REAL home, to the lakes and forests of Ottertail.

Musing on Being American

What kind of a Muslim would blow himself up in a crowd? A misguided one, many Muslims, including nearly every Muslim friend or acquaintance of mine from around he world. What kind of resident or citizen of the United States would protest the construction of a mosque? A majority of Americans, I sorely want to believe, would also answer, a misguided one.

The protesters do, and should, have the right to protest whatever they want - just as Muslims, Christians, or Jews have the right to practice religion in whatever way they choose. However, fear, even hatred, of the changing demographics of the United States, its flows of immigrants, its changing culture, is a betrayal of a complete lack of understanding of what it means to be an American. Our country's relatively brief history is nothing if not a continuing string of dramatic inflows of people and ideas, and often irrational and violent reactions to them. However, the history of America is also the story of a nation's ever growing understanding of its own diversity and the drive to not only accept but nurture it.

A true American knows his or her country's true comparative advantage in a global world is its diversity and its nature as a place where people from every corner of the globe can arrive and know that they have access to the same rights and opportunities as every other person.

A recent taxi ride, the driver being a Somali immigrant, made me more proud to be an American than I have ever been before. "Here, I have rights. I know what my rights are, and there are consequences if people try to deny me my rights. In Africa, and many countries, you might be thrown in jail for no reason, and there is nothing you can do about it."

Musings inspired by a front page article in the Sunday NewYork Times,

Across Nation, Mosque Projects Meet Opposition

Getting the Job Done

Leaders and their administrations' plans for putting policy into practice happen not when new laws are passed or new proclamations made but when the ranks of the bureaucracy are filled with enough like minded managers and leaders that a critical mass is reached.

Political appointees so far under the Obama administration.

Rock and Roll and Evolution

Jamaican Pigeon

Responses to a news article on Facebook are great examples of that country's unique brand of English.

From the news site go-jamaica.com:
"The Government of Jamaica says it stands ready to reject a no-confidence motion, which is to be moved against the Prime Minister by the Opposition in Parliament today. The issue topped discussions at the weekly meeting of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) hierarchy in St Andrew last night. According to the Leader of Government Business in the House, Andrew Holness the administration is prepared to respond to the motion in Parliament."

Some responses:

simple thing that fi brucey ...... no way that ago pass lol lol

KMT? Y BRUCE NUH RESIGN AND GO INNA EXILE?? BWOII, THE LONGER HIM STAY DI MORE HIM A TARNISH HIM OWN REPUTATION...

bwoy, sticky pon Bruce right now. guess the PNP want to bring enough pressure on laborite till dem kick out Bruce. other than fi a senior member take over, a doubt whether any of the younger party members could handle the onslaught from portia an dem afterwards..pnp smell blood in the water right now, nuh look like dem ago let up..