What Jamaicans take for granted. Our food.

We are a proud people. We pride ourselves to holding our culture and people to a certain standard of what we consider authentically Jamaican. The problem is what represents Jamaican culture varies to persons from different socio-economic backgrounds.

For example, some Jamaicans prefer eating foreign fruits (fruits you wouldn't normally find growing in our country. Give them a kiwi or strawberry and they're happy, but give them a nice, sweet, juicy firm East Indian mango and they tell you, "No sah dat cyan stay."

Now granted as the name suggests "East Indian" would mean that type of mango came from somewhere else, in fact many of our delicious varieties are imported just like the kiwis and granny smith apples, but mangoes have been around since the early colonial period in Jamaica and has become a staple item on the Jamaican food basket, so I think it is as much a part of our culture/food culture as ackee and salt fish.

Kiwis however, are a recent introduction to the Jamaican palette and expensive too. You can only find them in the more established supermarkets in St. Andrew. While mangoes grow here all year round, and quite different varieties too, kiwis have to be imported continually. Our climate is too hot and tropical for it to 'ketch' here.

What is my point? We don't appreciate the blessings we have here. I have seen mangoes on trees ripe and fall off, and become spoilt. Myriad of vegetables spoiling in our vegetable and ground provisions markets. Local fruits going to waste, which by the way are much cheaper because they are grown by our own farmers, while persons line-up to buy the expensive foreign foods that we have no idea if they are GMO (genetically modified) foods or not.

Some foods I agree as staples to out diet such salted cod fish (salt fish) are ok to be imported but foods such as fruit especially the expensive ones can be excluded. I have never tasted a kiwi and I lack no key nutrient in my diet. I occasionally buy a granny smith apple but just for kicks. My main stay are pineapples, melons and ripe bananas. I also find mangoes, pomegranates (when I get them), jimbalines, cherries, grape fruit and oranges. Very nourishing stuff!

There is something else I fear we take for granted and I fear its authenticity is slipping away from the next generation, and that is our music. The pulsating, heavy bass beat are being replaced by techno-pop sounding fluff. Dancehall has turned into a gimmicks thing where people walk with cooking gas cylinders on their backs or leap over or jump into fires (yes literal fire) at a street dance.

The lyrics are atrocious, it doesn't seem our young reggae/dancehall artistes take the time to write songs that make sense, that lift the culture and challenge the status quo. Well, there's Koffee, a breath of fresh air. Maybe her youthful but sticking to the tenets of Reggae music sound and lyrics approach is why she won the Reggae Grammy for 2020, this year!

Everyone says they are making music that the people want, but I don't think so, if that were the case they would be the ones nominated for a Grammy and recognised across several Reggae festivals  like Koffee has.

Next time I'll talk further about our music and also the Jamaican language - patois, and how stupid we have been towards our own native tongue.

I'm Back! What I've been up to and what now.

A couple of years ago I closed down my blog Luv and Relationships and decided to focus on creating content I felt would be helpful to my people especially those searching for employment. I felt like it was the right thing to do and it still is (look in the right column of this blog to see the link to that blog), but I realised that I also needed to do something for me that would make me feel more happy and just be me, and talk about the things I find interesting or funny, or really pisses me off! Hopefully the posts I share here will be something you will also find uplifting or funny or maybe stir up a passion you had long forgotten to make a difference or to just be there for someone else.

I chose this title for this blog because I've been making excuses for myself. Where health is concerned, I am not where I ought to be and where finances and other issues I do need improvement. So I guess this is my place to vent and maybe find answers and share information, and receive answers as well if you are game to share with me.

This year was my 6th wedding anniversary, it was a quiet evening at home, nothing major. We spent the time talking about our plans and the way forward. We are now trying more earnestly to find ways to make our finances better and a major concern for me is my health. Healthcare is expensive here in Jamaica, so most Jamaicans would resort to buying and drinking what we call 'bush tea', which is mostly herbs and some types of mint that grow here in Jamaica. I have resorted to those too. As a matter of fact it's what I grew up on!

If you were a child that grew up in the 1960s, '70s,'80s and '90s you drank 'bush tea'. Every summer there would be something our parents and grand parents call 'herb' (allowed to steep in hot water, some people drink it with no sugar, me...I told them to make it sweeyt so my mom gave it to me with both sugar and condensed milk...some people call it cream, it tasted horrible) which would be administered after the summer holidays to induce diarrhoea, to give you "wash out". It's something we kids got to flush out our colon and the thought was to get rid of any gunk in your system and flush out any worms. It worked! It wasn't a pretty sight to see kids rushing off to tbe bathroom several times in a day but it could be hilarious. Each child in a household dreaded when it would be their time, but as long as it wasn't their turn, they made fun of their siblings. Of course the other child would have their time to laugh soon after, usually the next day.

It would be over quickly though, the symptoms only lasted for a day and then you could go back to doing what you would do regularly. The last time I took herb I may have been in my early twenties, and it did nothing for me. Lol. My system must have built up a resistence. I just had a belly ache, passed gas and that was it. No bowel movement. You know, sometimes you need something stronger.

My life hasn't been easy so far, had a lot of struggles but I am looking for something more and better, something stronger, to solve the grown folks problems I have. In the meanwhile I ask that you join me in discussing different aspects of life and maybe we can come up with solutions together. ^_^