James' Forum

Re: Other idea's needed

Posted By: James
Date: Thursday, 3 March 2005, at 2:33 p.m.

In Response To: Re: Other idea's needed (MilwaukeeMike)

Mike,

Thanks for the ideas but the women's only spa idea came from Jennifer, and I think she was interested in satisfying particularly female needs. Remember "How Stella Got Her Groove Back"?

I can think of so many "Great" (in my own humble opinion) ideas for Jamaica, but the problem is that some Jamaican should have thought of it first, and a long time ago. I'm just a tourist.

I'm only one in about 800,000 tourists that visit Ja every year, and I after 10 trips, spending about $1,000 per trip, I think I have some valuable insights to share, but no one is interested.

I manage 89 residential apartments. I know I have the skills to take a place like HSH and do what? I'm sure it's a profitable operation already. What do I have to offer? Just my experience.

It's obvious that I'm not Jamaican, and as a guest worker, I would not be welcome, especially being a batty boy, so to speak. I keep having to bring that up because everytime I am in Jamaica I am questioned about my sex life at length by every man who has a sister to sell. What's up with those guys?

I guess it doesn't matter that my country has welcomed more Jamaicans to this land of opportunity than actually live in Jamaica? No, it doesn't count at all.

Nothing seems to count. Why? I can only guess. Wide spread corruption at every level of Jamaican society is probably the main reason, but there's the poverty and the ignorance and the just plain old pissed-off angry attitude that I sometimes get a taste of when I am in Negril, sorry to say it.

It is not my fault that I was born in the U.S. and I'm a man and I'm a white man. We all know that places me at the top of the food chain even though I was born one of nine children to poor, ignorant hillbillies.

What I did have was the opportunity to get an education because the government mandated it, and my poor ignorant father had the freedom to pack up and leave the dirt poor State of West Virginia and move his brood to a better place. Good for him, but Jamaicans don't have that freedom. They live on an island, a small island...

The truth is, that over time Jamaica will either develop into a sophisticated vacation destination that offers the same experience as a trip to Hawaii or the Bahamas. That is already happening. Over time this development will create a small but powerful Jamaican middle-class that will dump their cultural uniqueness in favor of a consumer oriented lifestyle modeled on ours.

In the next ten years any questions about who owns what land will be finally decided and the dirt poor of Jamaica will find themselves squeezed into smaller and smaller shanty towns. Poor Jamaicans would serve themselves well to start organizing now, but it is probably already too late.

Fortunately, none of this will happen tomorrow. It is a long slow process that you only notice over long periods of observation. The rich get richer and the poor get, nothing.

Most folks just adapt to their environment. Some will achieve great things, most will not. One day, 10 or 15 years from now, you'll be in Jamaica and you'll suddenly notice the changes and you shake your head and wonder at how quickly it happened. Time flies by... doesn't it?

Messages In This Thread

Other idea's needed
MilwaukeeMike -- Thursday, 3 March 2005, at 8:19 a.m.

Re: Other idea's needed
MilwaukeeMike -- Thursday, 3 March 2005, at 9:10 a.m.

Re: Other idea's needed
James -- Thursday, 3 March 2005, at 2:33 p.m.

Other tourist gift idea's needed
MilwaukeeMike -- Thursday, 3 March 2005, at 4:42 p.m.

Re: Other tourist gift idea's needed
James -- Thursday, 3 March 2005, at 6:28 p.m.

Re: Other tourist gift idea's needed
MilwaukeeMike -- Friday, 4 March 2005, at 4:13 p.m.