Comments on: Playing rhythym guitar in Kingston, Jamaica

By: karen

karen — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 21:18:27 +0000

hi surfing the net looking to become a penpal of any inmates in Jamaican prisions, can you help at all?
I just sent an email to you, but can not be sure it has arrived

By: …My heart’s in Accra » Short day, short posts

…My heart’s in Accra » Short day, short posts — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 22:10:12 +0000

[...] I went to Jamaica (for 36 hours…) a couple of months ago to lend a hand with a benefit for “Students and Staff Expressing Truth”, a computer-education and personal growth program based in Jamaica’s prisons, led by the remarkable Kevin Wallen. Wallen, with encouragement from my collegue Charlie Nesson, has started posting on Charlie’s blog. It’s a little odd to read Charlie’s blog and not know whether to expect Harvard’s most exciting law professor or a brilliant young social activist… but I suspect that’s how Charlie likes it. Kevin’s recent post about his “Unchained” radio show, which broadcasts songs requested by family on the outside for inmates, was especially moving to me. [...]

By: Global Voices Online » Blog Archive » This week in the Caribbean blogosphere

Fri, 21 Oct 2005 20:39:15 +0000

[...] Jamaica In Jamaica, much of the discussion focused on the incessant rainfall, which caused serious flooding in several parts of the island. “I drove through the bog walk gorge on Friday evening and believe me, it is a sight when that Rio Cobre river is as angry as it has been in all this rain,” wrote CoolDestiny on Sunday as the island braced for more bad weather in the coming week. Also blogging about the weather were Fyr and Mad Bull and Stunner posted some photos of flooded streets in Kingston and a broken bridge. Charles Matheson wrote a short but detailed account of some of the weather-related goings-on, saying that “The Yallahs Fording in St.Thomas is impassable, so is the Bog Walk Gorge and Barry, several roads in and around Spanish Town are inundated, so too several communities in the Sunshine City of Portmore. There are communities in the parish of Clarendon that are also marooned,” and on Wednesday reported on heavy traffic jams between Kingston and Portmore. Stunner was ecstatic to catch a glimpse of the sun on Friday, a sentiment echoed by Dr. D. Scratchie blogged about the weather too, but was also concerned with National Heroes Day, and indeed the Jamaican blogosphere wasn’t lacking in buzz about social and cultural issues. Mad Bull welcomed the return of “cultural songs” to the Jamaican music scene. Group blog Jamaica Culture and People solicited opinions on the legalization of marijuana with participant Missie raising the topic of traditional Jamaican attitudes toward care of the elderly and wondering how these might have changed. Missie also contributed an enticing photo of a traditional Jamaica breakfast and a re-post from the blog forum about the evolution of Red Stripe Beer. Speaking of Red Stripe, Owen had some reservations about a Red Stripe-sponsored competition in which the first prize is a Hummer: “Wouldn’t it be better to have the prizes be 20 cheap cars instead of just one expensive one?” he asked. And Dr. D. took on the topic of remittances, saying, “I get the impression that lots of our people feel that their folks ‘up so’ serve one sole purpose……to send money and consumer goods for them, as fast as a magic wand can be waved.” Visitors to the country had things to say as well. Berkman Center Clinical program participants filed audio reports about their time in Jamaica and one of them is keeping a journal. Ethan Zuckerman also blogged about “sitting in a conference room in Kingston, surrounded by telecoms employees, prison wardens, recently released former inmates, high school principals and a couple of somewhat confused Harvard professors” at the “Cyber Strategy for Caribbean Business Leaders” conference in Kingston and observed that in spite of the island’s relatively small size, “almost everyone in the world has an impression of Jamaica – accurate or not – connected to Bob Marley, Red Stripe beer, reggae, ragga, dancehall… In the sense of “nation brand”, Jamaica’s got an extraordinarily strong one.” Nesson was there as well and talked here and here about the event. [...]

By: Ethan

Ethan — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 01:37:23 +0000

Richard – Thanks for the kind words. I’ll drop you a line with some pointers to help get Ja Voices off the ground – would love to see it happen.

By: Richard Reese

Richard Reese — Sun, 16 Oct 2005 17:49:40 +0000

Hey Ethan you really had everyone at the seminar spell bound and the presentation with John P had rapt attention
I need a blogging refresher course and we can do it under Ja Voices so brief me step by step

By: Ethan

Ethan — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 16:48:28 +0000

But of course, Oso. Charlie Nesson is recording it and should post it on his blog later today. I’ll post the link as it goes live.

By: oso

oso — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 16:06:36 +0000

Is the “concert” being recorded for a podcast?