Enough Already!

The church has weighed in and cast their two cents into the ongoing debate about the purification of dancehall music. They are calling for a ban on street and community dances, particularly those where explicit lyrics are being played. I have no beef with carnival but I can’t understand how it manages to get corporate sponsorship, government approval, live TV broadcasts, police escorts and have major thoroughfares locked down on one of the the holiest days in the Christian calendar. Everyone is taking a swipe at dancehall these days. I guess it’s easier for corporate Jamaica, the church and the government to blame dancehall music for all the ills in society instead of their own shortcomings. I agree that a lot of the song lyrics are a little disturbing at times and inappropriate for wholesale public consumption but lets not get carried away. A lot of the persons who are up in arms have never even heard Ramping Shop or a "daggering" song. The government is quick to sponsor a jazz festival to the tune of USD500,000 as if this is New Orleans. Dancehall music/culture has the potential to be our biggest foreign exchange earner so lets invest in it. Stop trying to distract us from the real issues facing Jamaica. Please call off this witch-hunt.

Gussie Goes Walking

Yesterday I laced up my pumas for my first trek up Widcombe. Prior to this all my extracurricular activities were done behind closed doors and in the horizontal position. I’ve been procrastinating about this for months now and finally accepted a last minute invite by a friend of mine. We got there shortly after 5pm and joined the countless other Kingstonians who’ve been infected by the fitness bug. I knew it was uphill but didn’t know that I’d have to be bitten by a radioactive spider before attempting this walk. The air was clean and the vegetation made me forget I was still in the corporate area. That was until I got to the top and was able to gaze down at the city. The trek ended where the road ended, in a cul-de-sac. I caught my breath, crowned myself king of the hill and pat myself on the back, all while humming “eye of the tiger”. After touching some bamboo shoots, which I was “told” is customary to signify the end of the journey we proceeded downhill. That’s when the Deja vus began, or as I later discovered some of these people actually climb this hill more than once. The walk down was harder than I expected, I thought about getting KFC but ruled it out as a conflict of interests. Soon it was over and I was pleased with my performance, I’m not as out of shape as I had thought. If I keep this up the Sigma 5K is going to be a breeze. I came, I saw and I conquered!

Introducing Me

I knew it wouldn’t be long before “25 Random Things” mania would somehow make its way off facebook and infect the blogosphere. I was tagged by the good folks over there at Stunner’s Afflictions and accepted the challenge to document and share twenty five random things about me.

Gussie.....

1. is the son of a preacher man
   
2. hates public speaking and doesn’t like to be the center of attention
   
3. was once obsessed with uncovering KFC ‘s secret recipe
   
4. loves a big butt and a smile
   
5. hates books without pictures
   
6. is a momma’s boy
   
7. is a spontaneous, adventurous, alpha male who loves the outdoors
   
8. only watches black porn
   
9. is a hopeless romantic who loves to be in love
   
10. looks forward to marriage and often daydreams about it
    
11. had a huge crush on lauryn hill
    
12. collects car and GQ magazines
    
13. buys his shirts one size too small
    
14. prefers sex with the lights on. I almost insist on it
    
15. has a slight lisp
    
16. prefers boxer briefs but often goes commando
    
17. only owns one pair of sneakers
    
18. is a slave to his appetite, i love to eat
    
19. is lost without his blackberry
    
20. prefers pepsi over coke, there’s no comparison really
    
21. is short tempered. I’m all dynamite and no fuse
    
22. loves to laugh and make others laugh
    
23. dislikes the sound of his own voice, no personalized voice mail for me
    
24. loves the arts and recently took up painting
    
25. is his own worst critic
    

On Second Thought...

It wasn’t so long ago that I referred to my job as my private hell. It’s still my least favourite place to spend eight hours a day but these days I’m far more appreciative. What a difference a few months and global recession can make? Public sector jobs seem to be more resilient to recession than those in the private sector. Companies dropping the axe include Air Jamaica; more than 600, ALUMINIA Partners of Jamaica, 250; Gleaner Company, 70 and Jamaica Money Market Brokers Limited, 50. These numbers are very disturbing and depressing even to a "silver lining finding", "opportunity in adversity seeking", elder optimist like me. With so many Jamaicans becoming causalities of redundancies and job cuts this civil servant now thinks of his cup as half full instead of half empty.

Sex in Recession

Sex sells but not as much as it used to. Not even the Jamaican sex industry is recession-proof, it’s the latest casualty of the current economic crisis. Though far more resilient than other industries it isn’t immune to the economics of supply and demand. Prostitutes and sensual massage parlours have seen a 50% decline in profits and clientele. A sensual massage usually comes in second when it’s up against gas for the car, food for the table or lunch money for the kids. Jamaican sex workers are scrambling to retain customers by offering a 33% reduction in their hourly rates, from J$1,500 to J$1,000. You know it’s bad when you can buy sex for the price of a pizza or a bucket of fried chicken.

See article here

Adios G-G

Sir Kenneth Hall, Jamaica’s Governor General has retired. I forgot that we even had a G-G and was only reminded when I read the article about him stepping down. No disrespect to Sir Kenneth but is this position still relevant? What’s his role in Jamaica’s political landscape? I liken the G-G to an introverted co-worker who you only see when there’s a fire drill. Seriously, what does the G-G do besides visit hospitals, read the queen’s Christmas message at Christmas time and kiss beauty queens? If you’re a seventies baby like me you’ll remember former G-G, Sir Florizel Glasspole who was a serial kisser of beauty pageant contestants. Does Jamaica really need a local representative for Queen Elizabeth II? I think its full time we make this position redundant.

Happy New Year

As a child I often imagined what life would be like in 2009/10. For sure I’d have a closet full of unitards (like those on Star Trek), a robot dog named Astro and my very own flying car. I can attribute that to my steady diet of comics, cartoons and science fiction movies at the time. Here we are present day and even though there’s no shiny new future I’m still a dreamer who’s optimistic about the future. It is the time of year when I assess the year gone by and set attainable goals for the 2009. This new year I’ll carry forward the goals that I didn’t accomplish in 2008 and continue to preserve my sanity by maintaining the delicate balance between work and play. I also intend to focus on my health as well as my wealth and work on my relationship with the man upstairs. I urge you to make realistic resolutions so you don’t find yourself recycling them next year. 2009 is yours to claim, seize it for yourselves. Happy New Year folks, thanks for stopping by and I’ll see you next year!