Last week I sat in a hair salon near Half Way Tree in Jamaica listening to the shop owner vehemently disparage America and all its shortcomings. She had visited around six “states” including Miami, Jacksonville and Orlando, and she could guarantee that 98% of people in America smoked! Plus, they only had manners to white people. Some of the folks in the shop laughed with her, but many including myself were laughing at her.
I went home to Jamaica on this recent trip to consult on the redesign of a friend’s gourmet patisserie storefront. I hadn’t been home in just over two years. As always, the food was awesome. Fresh produce grown without the corruption of GMOs and unnatural fertilizers does something so special for basic flavors. But interactions like the one I was overhearing in that small, nicely appointed hair salon, are part of the reason I can’t see myself going back for more than a visit.
Many of my countrymen and women are severely culturally insulated. Yes, we see everything from everywhere in the world on television, and some of us have gone and experienced the wider world in person. But the stories we’ve heard about all things “other” being either demeaning or unholy cause many of us to have already made up our negative minds before ever giving new experiences the benefit of the doubt.
My own friend talked about living in another country and knowing other Jamaicans there who were well educated, but who believed for example, that if you played secular music backwards, you could hear messages of praise to satan. As exposed to first world lifestyles and technologies as we are on the island, there is a fear-everything-that-we-aren’t-used-to way of thinking that makes the fresh air seem claustrophobic to a free-thinker.
I’ve come to realize that although I am a proud child of the land, the ties that bind me to it don’t bind me to every facet of the national consciousness. I love Jamaica, but this visit has reinforced that although I’ll always call it “home” I don’t know that it can ever really be home again.
6 Responses
Reading this article, I am reminded that many Americans think that all Jamaicans smoke ganja!! Also reminded of the Jamaican motto “Out of Many, One People”. There are so many “Jamaicas” .. Maybe returning to the Jamaica(s) where people reason logically, use common sense and are well traveled, will possibly change your mind about not going home. That said, I am cognizant of the fact that most Jamaicans, like most Americans, have never traveled outside of their respective countries.
What a dumb column. There are dumb people everywhere. There are dumb people in America and worldwide. I guess you were hanging out with some dumb Jamaicans. I am from Pembroke Hall In JA and living in Orlando now. However, I have never heard such rubbish uttered from the friends I grew up with in Pembroke Hall, Patrick City, Forest Garden, Forest hills Garden, Meadowbrook, Queensbury, Tree oaks, etc. Its all about the people you associate yourself with. Plus I have heard a bunch of dumb stuff coming out of the mouth of Floridians all the time. All the crazy stuff that happens in America, most of it occurs in Florida. Should I now say that I won’t go home back to Orlando. Lady, you sound crazy.
She is entitled to her opinion. You may not agree but it is HER opinion. That is how SHE feels. You may feel differently and that’s fine. However, just because you do not agree with her decision not to return to reside in Jamaica, it does not make her opinion “dumb”.
Andrew is right. How can one say you will not return to live in your homeland because of what a few ignorant people say about where you now live.I myself have personally never heard Jamaicans who have visited or live in the US speak about it that way.The majority of Jamaicans dont feel that why about the US.This column comes across as hyperbole
I find it ironic that an Author whose stated “mission is to continue to showcase the best of Caribbean culture to the wider world” would pen an article highlighting the cultural ignorance of her own birthland, in the Caribbean.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but frankly I am disgusted by this column. I left Jamaica at nine months old, and since then have lived in the South Pacific, Central America, North America, East and Southern Africa, along with having traveled to Asia and Europe. I consider myself a very worldly and exposed global citizen. I have since moved BACK to Jamaica, and have had ZERO problems with finding like minded, globally aware citizens with which I can relate to and enjoy the company of while we discuss with an open mind topics such as food, culture, the economy, social issues, politics of the day, both local and international, not to mention historic events. Perhaps you need to look into your personal bias that you bring with you on your “visits” home, and have compassion for those that didn’t have the same shot at the level of education and exposure you were afforded, and may therefore have a different outlook from you.