Verandah
Its' summer now with a vengeance, hot, muggy days when it's too much of an effort even to eat. All i want to do is drink coconut water. Let's sit out here and chat. Maybe you would like to look at my PHOTO ALBUM.
EMANCIPATION & INDEPENDENCE
Greetings to all you Jamaicans, whether at home or abroad as we celebrate both Emancipation and Independence. My wish for us is that we emancipate ourselves from heterosexist thinking and establish our independence as self-actualized, creative and productive individuals who happen to be drawn to our own sex. There are many parallels between the history of our country and our individual paths to liberation and freedom. We are not yet free from the majority heterosexist domination and homophobic oppression. We are not yet full free.
But then neither is the majority population which still labours under burdens of inferiority, unworthiness and dependence, resulting in self-destructive behaviour patterns of violence, corruption and dishonesty. We are still trying to sabotage backra, sequester goods and property for our own use, and jim-screechy our way through, but we have not yet realised that all this is directed at our own selves. We keep looking for scapegoats on whom to blame our plight, never looking within. Finga neba se luk ya, but aalwiez luk de.
Emancipation has been commemorated by a ceremony held in Spanish Town Square where the original Emancipation Proclamation was read. The square has now been renamed Emancipation Square. The remains of four slaves discovered on the Maima Seville Estate have been re-interred after a whole night wake with African rituals. It has been announced that Liberty House will be restored in time for Heroes Week as a centre for the preservation and dissemination of Marcus Garvey's teachings. The President of Ghana Jerry Rawlings is here as our special guest at this time to strengthen ancestral links as many of our forebears came from that part of Africa.
We need rituals and symbols to affirm our being in the world, but external trappings will never achieve much more than temporary distraction from the existential reality. What is needed is an interior awareness of our intrinsic worth and dignity as human beings. The Prime Minister's much vaunted pronouncements on values and attitudes is a start, but needs to go much further.
The Jamaican gay cyber community can play a crucial part in networking to elucidate, reinforce and affirm our identity as gay men, as Jamaicans, as human beings made in the image and likeness of very God.
16 LIVES SACRIFICED IN PRISON RIOTS
Two years ago sixteen inmates at two of Jamaica's maximum security prisons were killed, suspected of being homosexual, and over thirty were injured during riots which broke out following a strike by prison warders who objected to a proposal that condoms be distributed in the prisons.
There has been an increase in the incidence of HIV/AIDS in the Jamaican prison system. In fact, a number of convicted PWAs have been pardoned by the Governor-General. A programme of AIDS education and the free availability of condoms in prison were therefore proposed to prevent the spread of AIDS as well as other STDs. The warders objected because they said it suggested that they were having sex with the prisoners, so they withdrew their services.
Homosexuality has always been a part of prison life universally, and the Jamaican prisons are no different in this respect. The intense homophobia of the society, the system, and the persons involved will not admit much less accept this. They would rather pretend that homosexual acts are not being engaged in, so men will continue to have "bareback", unprotected sex and risk infection. After an initial outcry at the level of violence and loss of life, the society seems to have adopted an attitude of "let them kill off themselves. We are well rid of them. They're only criminals and battymen."
While some arrests have been made in connection with the deaths, I doubt that much will be done to address the root cause of the problem, which is homophobia, for that will open up too many cans of worms. We are not ready yet as a society to face up to all the aspects of ourselves.
FRIENDS ON THE WEB
Bobette
If you know of a link which should be here, drop me a line.
Check to see who's looking for penpals
and use our COMPATIBILITY METER to see if you'll hit it off with them
WHERE TO GO IN JA
3A Haughton Avenue, Kingston 10, Telephone 876 926-0303
Members club but visitors with out-of-town id welcome
Open Fridays and Saturdays only
Your host:Brian
TOURS - gayfriends jamaica
ACCOMMODATION
Negril
P. O. Box 3, Negril 876 957-4490
Negril 876 957-0126
or write to 440 Ontario Street,Toronto, Ontario M5A 2W1, Canada
Caledonia (near Negril)
P. O. Box 210, Savanna La Mar
Tel 876 997-5895 Fax 876 955-9712
The late Alex Haley's estate set in acres of rainforest now an all-inclusive US$210 per night, 7th night free, 15% discount to SBC and Spartacus readers.
Ocho Rios
Seagrape Villas
Port Antonio
Hotel Mockingbird Hill
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