How many knives?

I had to post this photo in the Jamaica Observer showing the hundreds of knives that police brought in from one weekend of spotchecks.   This would give some indictation of just how many people walk around with knives in JA.

 

 

Human trafficking and prostitution in Jamaica

Shaw Clifton

The general of the US Salvation Army, Shaw Clifton is on a five day trip to Haiti to look into the problem of human trafficking in the Caribbean.  Especially around Haiti to the Dominican Republic but also Belize and Jamaica.  He said that there was forced prostitution going on.

I’ve written on this blog before about the problem of prostitution and the Haitian women in Jamaican go go clubs.    

Yardflex reported last year how an influx of Haitian women in the clubs was causing tension between them and the locals, but I think they’re missing the point about the choices available to these women and the decision to become prostitutes. 

Last year, there was a planned protest by Haitian prostitutes in the Dominican Republic, many of whom were later deported.   Their voice seems to hardly ever be heard.

The extent of the problem of human trafficking, like everywhere else, is not known.  There was some research into it, but it did not throw much light on the problem, but this woman – Sheila Nicholson who was a programme director of an organisation called People’s Action for Community Transformation (PACT), which worked with young Jamaicans at high risk of becoming victims of human trafficking, probably would be a good place to start to find out more.

If you’ve ever been into one of these go go clubs, sometimes they have hotels attached - I stayed one night at one of these hotels (I needed a cheap hotel!) , but Kingston and Jamaica have loads of them, it would not be hard to start uncovering some of the stories behind the darkened glass and flashing lights.

Who defends Jamaicans from the soldiers?

Photo by redz220

I had some very bad news that someone I know was shot and killed by a soldier in Kingston, Jamaica.  Having a look around, it seems there are a few problems with the Jamaica Defence Force worth looking into.

In a recent announcement, the acting commissioner of police, said that his priorities were to tackle corruption among soldiers under his command, restoring public confidence and upholding human rights.

A number of things lead him to make these his priorities.

There was the case, I blogged before, about when a soldier opened fire in a club, killing four people.  Then there was this case, where a soldier gunned down his girlfriend.

Of course, there are countless more terrible deaths of soldiers shot trying to maintain peace in tense and violent communities.

But some of the same problems endemic in the police force are most certainly going on in the JDF too.  Corruption, shootings and killings,  as well as cover up.

Made In Jamaica

I watched this film last night and thought it was pretty good man. 

I liked Elephant Man on stage where he gets a skinny white man up on stage with him, when he is on tour in Europe, to get down and dirty with some women from the audience – one of them he calls “Lady Elephant”. 

Photo by luvey010677

I also liked the shots of Bounty Killer but desperately wanted to hear more from Lady Saw, Tanya Stephens and Vybz Kartel.  There was a bit too much old time reggae for my liking.

The film was a mix between documentary and social commentary on ghetto life and how it fuels the musical talent and also part slick music video staged shots going on. 

I would have filmed a more rough and ready version with a faster turnaround – most the the tracks were old old old – the thing was recorded in 2006 and only just showing now. 

But it had great music including Gregory Isaacs singing Denham Town as a funeral passes by and great scenic shots – cinematography was perfect. 

The start showed Bogle dancing and then how he got shot.

 

I interviewed Elephant Man at a club one time and he was really hating on John Hype before that shooting so there was a lot of animosity going around at that time.  RIP Bogle. 

 

The Cool School Bus

Photo by Jonathan Goldberg

School kids in Spanish Town are waiting around for special cool buses to get to school in the mornings.   These are the buses playing the music they like at loud volume and also have tinted glass so there are fears that there might be sex going on, on there.  It’s causing a log jam in Spanish Town in the mornings, to the extent that the police are involved – trying to get the kids to get on any transport to get them to school.

The so called “sex bus” has been in the headlines on a number of occasions – Vybz Kartel sang a song about it – and there were claims of sexual activity on buses in 2006. The practise of “lapping up” on packed buses where you have to sit on other peoples’ laps might have something to do with it (or not).

I prefer the buses playing the loud music myself, I have to say.   Better atmosphere!

In defense of the reputation of Jamaica’s buses, I would like to post this link to the bashy bus which is about spreading the AIDS awareness message.

Jamaican hijacker gets sentenced

Stephen Fray

The fool who decided to hijack a plane at Sangster Airport has been sentenced to 83 years in prison and will probably serve 20, but I feel sorry for him.

It was made clear in the psychology reports and interviews that there was something mentally wrong with him and that before this time, he was a “well mannered child.”

Also he’s now 22 years old and so will be spending the best part of his life behind bars of a not very nice prison.  You gotta feel sorry for the guy as this ruling is more about sending out a message to the tourist community.       Read more on him here.

Jamaica is on Obama’s drug list

Barack Obama’s address to Congress sees four Caribbean countries, including Jamaica as among the world’s top drug-transit and illicit drug-producing nations.

The list is the same as before – with others including the Bahamas and Haiti among 20 countries with those designations in 2009.   The others include the Dominican Republic, Afghanistan, Bolivia, Brazil,  Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico and Venezuela.

In reality, this means that when you see those small planes landing and taking off on the small airstrips like at Bascobel, you gotta think drugs.  When you go out on the docks at Kingston wharf and see all those crates, you’ve gotta think drugs (and guns) and even small boats like these guys who got caught with marijuana in a rowing boat.   Desperate times, desperate measure.

Dancing in the Ghetto

 

I came across this video by a woman called Terry Lynn from Waterhouse, Kingston – a ghetto area I have been to a number of times.

It’s a really good video and I was kind of transfixed by the production, filmed entirely in Waterhouse, the images and shots are really fantastic. 

Very innovative and she has an interesting story to tell about growing up in Waterhouse and trying to make it as an artist when you have to pay money to get your records onto the radio.   Here’s an interview she gave.

more about “Dancing in the Ghetto “, posted with vodpod

Where are the guns coming from?

The United States of America, of course. 

Guns on display in the US - Photo by Bobasonic

This article was linked to my blog and it’s a really excellent piece of journalism from AP writer, Mike Melia which I am going to paste here in full – something I do not normally do, but it’s so good, says everything I wanted to know.

 

Guns from America fuel Jamaica’s gang wars

 

 

Mike Melia, Associated Press Writer on Sun Jun 21, 2009 10:36 AM EDT

 Ships from Miami steam into Jamaica’s main harbor loaded with TV sets and blue jeans. But some of the most popular U.S. imports never appear on the manifests: handguns, rifles and bullets that stoke one of the world’s highest murder rates.

The volume is much less than the flow of U.S. guns into Mexico that end up in the hands of drug cartels – Jamaican authorities recover fewer than 1,000 firearms a year. But of those whose origin can be traced, 80 percent come from the U.S., Jamaican law enforcement officials have said in interviews with The Associated Press.

And as the Obama administration cracks down on smuggling into Mexico, Jamaicans fear even more firearms will reach the gangs whose turf wars plague the island of 2.8 million people.

“It’s going to push a lot of that trade back toward the Caribbean like it was back in the ’80s,” said Vance Callender, an attache at the U.S. Embassy in Kingston for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

U.S. authorities are beginning to target the Jamaican gun-smuggling network as part of a broad effort to boost security in the Caribbean.

But they have a long way to go. Jamaican authorities have confiscated only 100 guns coming into ports in the last five years, along with 6,000 rounds of ammunition. That in turn is just a fraction of the 700 or so weapons confiscated on the streets each year.

Authorities know they’re only seeing “the tip of the iceberg,” said Mark Shields, Jamaica’s deputy police commissioner.

With arsenals to rival police firepower, the gangs are blamed for 90 percent of the homicides in Jamaica – 1,611 last year, about 10 times more than the U.S. rate, relative to population.

Unlike in Mexico, the vast majority of Jamaican guns seized are submitted for tracing. Jamaica and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives find most of the seized weapons come from three Florida counties – Orange, Dade and Broward – all with large Jamaican populations, according to Shields.

X-ray scanners were installed two years ago at Jamaican ports, but the gangs use bribery and intimidation to get their shipments past inspectors.

In April, a newly hired customs supervisor had his tires slashed and days later was shot at on his way home from work, authorities say. The man was known for his strict scrutiny of cargo coming into a gang-infiltrated warehouse on the Kingston wharf.

When the gangs apply pressure, “no one says no,” said Danville Walker, Jamaica’s commissioner of customs.

“It’s a massive problem,” said Leslie Green, a Jamaican assistant police commissioner. “There aren’t any checks or any controls on goods leaving the United States. Yet anything leaving here, we have to make sure it’s double-checked and tripled-checked for drugs.”

This complaint – that Americans care only what comes in, not what goes out – echoes that of Mexican authorities, who say cars going from the U.S. into Mexico aren’t searched for weapons or cash.

Now hundreds of agents are participating in a $95 million outbound inspection program, stopping suspicious-looking cars and trucks as they cross the border into Mexico. Authorities don’t know how many firearms get through, but more than 12,000 guns used in crimes in Mexico last year were sent to U.S. authorities for tracing, a number that grows as more agencies in Mexico are trained to submit traces.

The U.S. and Jamaica both prohibit the unlicensed transport of guns. But like Mexican smugglers, Jamaican ones depend on lax U.S. gun laws, corrupt customs inspectors and front men acting as buyers.

Florida gun laws make it relatively easy to buy a legal firearm, and much of the smuggling is done by family and friends, said Shields, the Jamaican police official.

The guns are concealed in container loads of blue plastic and cardboard barrels, the kind Jamaicans use to send household goods to their families on the island.

Some shipping companies advertise a no-questions-asked policy in soliciting customers, said Walker, the customs commissioner. He declined to single out individual companies.

In one of the few Jamaican gun-smuggling cases prosecuted in the U.S., Tawanna Banton, 36, of Florida was convicted of buying a Glock handgun later used in the gang killings of four island police officers. She said her Jamaican boyfriend arranged the purchase, and she was paid $15,000 to buy the handgun and a .50 caliber “Grizzly” rifle with a tripod mount, according to court documents.

She told ATF agents the guns were then hidden inside kitchen appliances and driven to Miami for shipment to Kingston.

Banton pleaded guilty to making false statements to the gun dealer in 2006 and served a month in prison.

Besides coming in on freighters, authorities say, guns are stolen or purchased from crooked police or in “guns-for-ganja” deals by fishermen, who bring homegrown marijuana to nearby Haiti and return with pistols, revolvers and submachine guns – many of them believed to be from the U.S. as well.

Callender’s ICE unit began investigations in Jamaica last year with a focus on guns. He said agents in Miami and New York have been working to “interject themselves” into the shipping networks. Indictments are imminent in two or three cases involving suspected Jamaican traffickers inside the U.S., he said, without elaborating.

Then there’s the $45 million Caribbean Basin Security Initiative on regional security, announced by U.S. President Barack Obama in April, which is designed to help the islands counter any spillover of violence from Mexico.

Meanwhile, at the ports, Jamaican customs officials are training more spotters to patrol the warehouses, including five in Kingston who process an average of 10 shipping containers daily.

But inspectors feel the odds are still stacked against them.

“The guys we’re up against, they have time, they have money, and they are very resourceful,” said Andrew Lamb, a supervisor with Jamaica customs’ Contraband Enforcement Team. “They’re pretty good at what they do.”

© 2009 The Associated Press.

The Dudus Connection

Dudus - photo Sunday Herald

Things are starting to unravel in Jamaica, as the drug money link between dons and politicians,  starts to get the media attention it deserves.

The United States want Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke – the notorious don man of Tivoli Gardens, West Kingston for trafficking drugs and guns.   But will the ruling Jamaica Labour Party give him up?

The connections are many.   They are outlined here and include,

a construction company called Incomparable Enterprises, where Dudus is a partner was awarded three govt contracts by the JLP valued at $ US  400 thousand.

Another contract worth a $US 150,000 contract, was given to transport materials to Riverton City landfill.

Dudus heads up the entertainment company Presidential Click which organises the very popular Champions In Action event.

Police say that Dudus also owns several residences, including this house in Plantation Heights, Red Hills, St Andrew.

This is Dudus's house in Red Hills- looks real nice

This house is a far cry from the living conditions of the residents of Tivoli Gardens, people are said to fear him and love him.  I’ve written more about passa passa in this blog post - a dance he keeps which is not subject to the 2am noise laws.

Conditions in Tivoli are not so lavish- photo by miss patricia

The former national security minister – Peter Phillips from the opposition Peoples’ National Party has spoken up on the issue, predictably saying the government should give Dudus to the Americans.

So what’s stopping them?  Dudus’s money has bought him alot of power in the JLP, will it be enough to protect him?