Prof. Barry Chevannes Passes

Courtesy of UWI

Prof. Barry Chevannes, another great Jamaican passed away. 

In September 2008, I and a former colleague, senior writer S. L. Price, of Sports Illustrated went to Jamaica to do a feature story on the return of Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser to the country after their magnanimous achievements in Beijing.  What might have been perceived as a simply story, follow around the athletes, was quickly revealed as anything but simply.  Fraser was from Waterhouse, a garrison community within Kingston.  I knew in order to represent her fairly I would have to get historical, political and cultural understanding of garrisons and Waterhouse in particular.  

For that I turned to Prof. Chevannes at UWI (Mona) and Horace Levy of the Peace Management Initiative, also a former sociologist at UWI.   Both men were invaluable in their willingness to share their knowledge of inner city communities in Kingston.  I had countless telephone conversations with Levy and sat with him on the UWI campus for about 40 minutes.  


Prof. Chevannes allowed me to interview him in his office for one and a half hour. There was only a path cleared for his chair behind his desk, and the guest to sit at a chair in front of his desk.  Every other space was covered with books and papers.  He talked to me about colonial days through the 70s to present time.  I was a journalist and a student that day.  I left knowing more that I had every anticipated about political struggles in Jamaica, but also left confident the sections on Waterhouse would be handled with care.  

Obituary 

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20101106/lead/lead2.html

Homecoming Story 

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1146758/index.htm

-- Connie Aitcheson

Norma Shirley Death

On a visit to Jamaica a few years ago a dear family friend took my mother, aunt and I to Norma’s on the Terrace for dinner at Devon House, a national heritage

Courtesy of repeatingislands.com

site in Kingston. I don’t remember the exact dishes we ate but I know all four of us were transfixed. The meal was a five-star experience; equal to any meal in Paris or New York, and we were silent with our joyous stomachs. 

So it is with real shock to hear of the passing of the chef/co-owner of the restaurant, Norma Shirley, on Monday.  Shirley is the culinary Louise Bennet, Bob Marley or Rex Nettleford. Although Jamaica is known for its jerk and ackee & saltfish dishes, perhaps no person has revolutionized food on the island more than Shirley. She enhanced the local cuisine as well as mixed them with international flavors.  

I have eaten at The Grog Shoppe also at Devon House, which she recently reopened and was the chef; and at Ortanique in Coral Gables, FL, partnered by her son Delius Shirley and Cindy Huston.  At both restaurants the food was delicious and the people were warm and welcoming. 

Fortunately Shirley's gifts and legacies were passed on but she will truly be missed.  

Obituary

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Norma-Shirley-passes


-- Connie Aitcheson

Tyson Gay beats Usain Bolt

http://www.universalsports.com/video/assetid=aa51eb32-cd70-499c-b899-a82c6d1d37a7.html#gay+stuns+bolt+stockholm+100m

It’s about time.  Tyson Gay finally beat Usain Bolt in the 100m.   At the DN Galan meet in Stockholm, Gay beat Bolt in their third head-to-head in the 100m. Gay ran 9.84 to Bolt’s 9.97.   

I celebrate Gay’s win not so much for him crossing the line first, but unfortunately for the validity it now gives him.  Fans all know he’s got the talent and we all say he’s one of the few athletes that can beat Bolt, but he hadn’t until now. Bolt has beaten Gay in two of the three world records he has set in the 100m -- the only times they had previously met. And Gay’s American record of 9.69, he set in Shanghai last September, is the second fastest time ever to speedy pants, Bolt’s, 9.58.  So it’s good to see Gay finally take a race from Bolt. The last time Bolt lost in the 100m was to Asafa Powell in July 2008, and it was also at the Stockholm meet.  To me that race was more Bolt letting Powell win, than Powell taking the race from Bolt. 

But there was no disputing the results in Stockholm this time. Although Gay and Bolt are both overcoming injuries and it’s an off year, it was good to see Gay come to a meet well prepared and hungry. He had the better start and wouldn’t relinquish his lead. Bolt, whose top speed usually can't be topped, had to cross the line without the cameras running after him. 

The best part of Gay’s win to me is that it’ll make both he and Bolt better athletes.  Both sprinters are very respectful of the other. Gay is Mr. Humble, always acknowledging how good every athlete is, and Bolt has declared in the past that he can’t even think of sleeping on Gay. It's a privilege to watch track and field history be made by these two men and Powell. I selfishly want more and can’t wait for the next showdown.
-- Connie Aitcheson

Chasing Bolt

Open the link below and watch the video.  It’s crazy. 

http://pacesportsmanagement.flowebsite.com/video

The allure of Usain Bolt is that he’s always being chased, whether on the track or on the streets. The fastest man in the world can’t be caught. His management company, Pace Sports, just released a video “Chasing Bolt: Episode 1, Paris” which shows how the fans flock to him as he travels between meets. The video shows the fans running after Bolt in his team van while in Paris for the Diamond League meet, a 100m race in which he beat countryman Asafa Powell, and training partners Yohan Blake and Daniel Bailey, with the fourth fastest time this season at 9.84.

What’s amazing to me is that these crowds don’t seem to fluster Bolt. It wouldn’t be extraordinary if he started to believe the hype and think he’s the greatest athlete ever and maybe that’s happened, I don’t know. For the most part I think he’s pretty grounded. To some extent I would have thought the fans constant expectations that he break his records every time he’s at the line would have affected his performance in some way, but it doesn’t seem to.  Although he’s still overcoming an injury to his Achilles tendon and has only raced five times this year in the 100m and 200m he’s still clocking times that would be personal best for most sprinters.   

His closest rivals, Powell and Tyson Gay can’t catch Bolt and that’s a great part of the obsession with Bolt. That two world champions can’t catch the 6’5” dancehall fanatic. In another era Powell and Gay would be chased around as the fans in the video are chasing Bolt. But all three have peaked at the same time and unfortunately only one mountain is higher than the rest.

For the sake of track and field, I can only hope that Bolt stays healthy. That he continues to win races (with fast times), strike his pose and bust a move on the track so that fans continue to run after him; but that he saves the records for the World Championship and Olympics. 

  -- Connie Aitcheson

Bob Marley at the World Cup

New York -- I sat watching the World Cup in pain.  The gutter play of unnecessary fouls and countless missed chances for goals between the Netherlands and Spain made me moan as the match became a torture to watch.

And then seconds after the final whistle blew and it was clear Spain was the World Champion, Bob Marley echoed across the stadium with "Could You Be Loved."  The first song to announce the winners was from Jamaica's own, Bob Marley; at this I got happy.

Bob is no stranger to Africa having written songs to liberate and encourage Africans aroung the world, including "Africa Unite," "Zimbabwe" and performed in opposition to apartheid. So he is much loved in the continent. He was represented by Damian Marley and Nas with "Strong Will Continue" on the World Cup album though they didn't perform at the event.

At the Beijing Olympics, the DJ knew what he or she was doing when Elephant Man's "Nuh Linga" and "Gully Creepa" were played. Any observant fan of track and field in 2008 was ready to crown Usain Bolt as the sprint king during the Games so the DJ was prepared with the songs.

As well, reggae has increasingly managed to be the background or main music in countless movies, among them "In Her Shoes" with Cameron Diaz is one that pops into mind.


But father Bob is eternal.  His music always finishes off what needs to be said.  He always puts the little island in the middle of something grand.  So even though the Reggae Boyz weren't near South Africa, Jamaica was represented when "Could You Be Loved" started off the World Cup party in South Africa.


Bob reigns forever.
-- Connie Aitcheson

World Cup Ghanaian Soccer in Brooklyn

New York -- If you weren’t in Rustenburg, South Africa or Accra, Ghana then Brooklyn, NY was the third best spot to watch the match.  When Ghana beat the US, 2-1 in the World Cup last Saturday, Ghanaians partied in the middle of Flatbush and Lincoln Avenues stopping traffic. The area has been a Jamaican stronghold for over 40 years and traffic is normally stopped by Caribbean descendants for the West Indian Day parade during the labor day holiday.   

The Ghanaian bar, Meytex Cafe, has shown the World Cup matches since the event started.  So when both countries met, American and Ghanaian supports turned out. Folks showed up with vuvuzelas, drums and tons on flags for the third African country to make it to the quarterfinals in the World Cup. 

And when Ghana won the match, the bar immediately emptied. All of sudden Flatbush and Lincoln Avenues became a club with folks dancing and singing in the middle of the streets. This went on for about two hours before a police car drove by. But seeing that people were celebrating, and nothing more sinister was happening, the officers didn’t tell the people to stop blocking traffic but chanted over their load speaker, "USA."  One officer even told the Ghanaians they "live in America now."  That was met by a pretty, young Ghanaian girl who draped the hood of the police car with her flag.  


Only in Brooklyn, could New York's finest be calmed by a Ghanaian beauty.
-- Connie Aitcheson

After Dudus in Kingston

New York -- I arrived in the rain.  The Air Jamaica flight flew into Kingston in silence.  All the passengers were quiet -- prayerful of landing safely.  Recent memories of the American Airline plane crashing while landing into Kingston in the rain became real.  This isn’t the sunny city everyone knew.  It was Friday, May 28^th, five days after the Jamaican government established a state of emergency for Kingston and the city’s police and security forces stormed the Tivoli Gardens community and entered into a shootout with gunmen of the area.  

I sailed through Immigration but had the inevitable wait for my suitcase. Not thinking about the condition of my luggage I went to a secluded area just waiting for the baggage conveyer belt to start. One of the baggage men, from outside the airport, poked his head through an opening of the wall into the building.  I smiled at him because he looked like a squirrel coming up for air to catch some nuts. But he looked at me and said “it a rain from 9 o’clock last night,” then paused.  “It a wash away some a de blood.” Oh God. I motioned to him that he shouldn’t say that. He laughed but he was a serious.    


By the time I got my suitcase it was soaked. I approached the custom officer just wanting to get out of the airport. When I told her I was a journalist she smiled and asked me if I had a bulletproof vest. “What?” I asked. I laughed and said, “no, not that kind,” but she too was quite serious. Immediately, I realized local and international journalists had been covering the Tivoli Garden story in bulletproof vests and helmets. 

Welcome to Jamrock.

Margaret Lambert Track and Field at Francis Lewis High School

New York-- Margaret Lambert received her latest acknowledgement in an effort to redress a wrong in history. Yesterday, Francis Lewis High School in Fresh Meadow, Queens, named their track and field complex, the Margaret Lambert Track and Field. 

It’s a simple act to name a track and field area after someone but not a simple declaration considering where Lambert is coming from.

In 1936, she won a regional meet in Stuttgart, Germany with a scissor style high jump of 1.60m (5’3”).  The height tied the national high jump record making her the number one high jumper in Germany. Although she was on the German Olympic team scheduled to compete in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, the Nazis eliminated her record and took her off the Olympic team because she was Jewish.  Her jump of 1.60m would be the gold medal height at the Berlin Olympics.

Sports Development in Treasure Beach and University of the West Indies (Mona)

Kingston--Jamaica welcomed the launch of two new sport development facilities last week.  The first happened in an open field in Treasure Beach, St. Elizabeth and the second took place at the University of West Indies (UWI) in Kingston, St. Andrew.

Although Usain Bolt is bringing world attention to Jamaica's sporting abilities, both developments have been planned for years. 

With the international success of their soccer, netball, cricket, bobsled and track and field teams, there’s a movement in Jamaica to help nurture the raw talent on the island by improving and creating new sports infrastructures.

Jamaica International Invitational

Kingston-- Jamaica is the sprint capital but track and field is a global sport.  Usain Bolt has not only placed Jamaica in the center of the international media attention and become the latest icon for tourism to his country but he has also renewed global interest in track and field.

So it wasn’t really a surprise last year when Doug Logan, CEO of USA Track and Field proposed two dual meets between Jamaican and American sprinters to take place in their countries which would have occurred this month and next.  However, those tentative meets are currently on hold as other plans are being worked out. 

Staying at Jakes

Treasure Beach-- Something told me to look under the bed.  Why?  I didn't store any bags or shoes there.   But I try to obey the quiet voices when I hear them.  Well my hearing was fine but I wasn't sure about my sight.  I wasn't wearing my eyeglasses which I need for distance and thought I saw a statue under the bed.  So I found my eyeglasses and was back on one knee looking under the bed only to see that a dog was sleeping there.  Completely quiet and still was Blackie, one of the resort's dog. 

Wow.  I’ve heard about letting sleeping dogs lie -- but under my bed?  She opened her eyes and looked at me.  No fear, no trepidation.  She looked at me as if to ask do you have a problem?  I couldn’t help but laugh.  Since it was now very clear I was the visitor and she was at home. 

Common Mango

It was a shame before God but I think he'll forgive me.  Yesterday I had to go to the national office of the Catholic church in Kingston.  A simple errand to pick up a few birth certificates for family members so the visit wasn't going to take long.  But as soon as I drove onto the grounds I saw a mango tree filled with ripe mangoes.  Without hesitating, I parked the car and asked the security guard if I could pick them when I finished with the office call.  I returned in five minutes only to see him with a stick under the tree picking mangoes for me.  I got 23 mangoes by the time we picked up every ripe fruit in sight.

Unfortunately, a lot of mangoes and fruits go to waste in Jamaica.  I have passed countless trees filled with cherries and mangoes ready to be eaten but they’re not. People sometimes give the fruits to others but mostly they just ignore them. They fall on the ground and waste away.  A popular saying here in reference to people who need something but can’t get it or those who don't need anything but waste what they have is:  “waant it waant it cyan geh ee and geh ee geh ee no waant it.”

But perhaps the biggest reason these mangoes were still on the tree was that they’re “common mangoes.”  Just as the name says they’re all over the place.  Most folks don’t treasure them because they don’t have much flesh and have a lot of hair so it’s a hassle to eat them.  But having lived abroad without mangoes for so many years I’m hardly picky.   I’ll eat any variety of the fruit.

Fortunately, the mangoes I ate last night were surprisingly sweet.  The perks of taking fruits off holy grounds.

-- Connie Aitcheson

Backyard Vegetables

Kingston-- This morning I cut some callaloo and picked pak choi from our backyard. Pretty cool. Living in New York City most of my life I was beginning to think squeezing up the best vegetables at the farmer’s market was the same as actually growing the thing.

I gotta give it to Jamaicans but they take real pride in growing fruits and vegetables in their backyard.  Jamaica is an agrarian society and while the country still imports a lot of vegetables and fruits (American apples) most everyone has a couple of fruit trees or a vegetable patch somewhere on their land. People are quick to tell you which variety of mangoes is in their yard (Julie, East Indian or Bombay) and who gave them the seed to plant their ackee or breadfruit tree.  You can see trees everywhere on the island.

Running in the Rain at the UTech Classic

Kingston-- Ten minutes into the UTech Track & Field Classic at the National Stadium in Kingston last night, the drama began. Olympic and World Champion gold medalists, Shelly-Ann Fraser and Usain Bolt, wouldn’t get the chance to dazzle the crowd by anchoring their 4x100 meter relays to victory. In both their races, which were the first two of the meet, there was a fumble in passing the baton between the first and second runners. For Fraser, her teammate at least picked up the baton and forced her to finish in last place but Bolt could just hold his hands to his head when he saw that his team, Racers Track Club was disqualified.

Journeys Across Jamaica

Finally, it rained yesterday. I mean really rained. As in close to three hours and not the 10-minute kiss that’s normal in the Caribbean. Yeeaaahhhh. There’s certainly a lot of danger in having too much rain but when there’s none you really treasure what you have. For about seven months Jamaica has been experiencing a serious drought. Parts of the island have received sprinkling of rain but nothing to quench the thirst of the people, animals and earth.The national papers and a news program have published stories of communities praying for rain; members of the clergy saying the drought is a result of the country’s sinful ways; people stealing water from school tanks over the weekend when the schools are closed; schools closed because there’s no water and government officials pleading with the citizens to be careful in clearing land by fire because there’s no water to stop a potential blaze. 

Easter in Jamaica

Kingston-- Praise and worship started at 6 a.m on Easter Sunday. Except it wasn’t at a church but at The Little Theater in Kingston. The National Dance Theater Company [NDTC] of Jamaica was holding it’s annual Easter performance. By 5:50 a.m. my mother, a family friend and I were seated in the auditorium. Over 300 people dressed mostly in white, packed the space. I said to our friend who bought us tickets for the performance is a big sin ting dis, upstairs and downstairs full only to have him reply, yes man is like backra [boss man] house, it have upstairs and downstairs.

Boys' & Girls' Champs Winners 2010

Kingston-- The party was held under a full moon. High over the national stadium the stars and the moon aligned so that Wolmer’s Boys School and Holmwood Techncal won the Boys’ and Girls’ division of the 100^th staging of Champs.

In no other country is high school track and field as beloved a

s in Jamaica. Asafa Powell, 10 times record holder in the 100m was welcomed on the track for about 30 seconds but it wasn’t his day. Shelly-Ann Fraser and Aleen Bailey, Olympians and World Champions were in attendance but it wasn’t their day either. The day belonged to the high school athletes. Students from 13 to 19 years old were greeted with all the fanfare reserved for kings and queens.

Shades of a Dream at Boys' & Girls' Champs 2010

Kingston-- "Misss, miss," he called to me.  Michael Newman wanted to know what kind of shoes I was wearing.  The soles of my shoes are so thick and high, to alleviate the pressure of walking on cement, that they looked as though I were walking on stilts. 

I wasn’t sure if he wanted me to buy one of the sunglasses he was selling, hanging from a homemade wood display unit, so approached wanting to hear his request. The sun was scalding hot and standing in the shades defeats the purpose of his products. So he leaned calmly against the fence awaiting somebody to inquiry of the price of his eyewear. The sunglasses with rhinestones on the sides are JA $500, those without are JA $400.

Boys' & Girls' Champs Celebrations 2010

Kingston-- Every year in Jamaica the population stops to honor their children. For four days, in the last week of March, fans gather at the National Stadium in Kingston to scream, wear the colors of the schools they support and celebrate with friends and family. This year, the 100^th anniversary of the Boys' Inter Secondary School Sports Association championships will be held, or Champs as its known by locals.  It's the 53rd staging of Girls' Champs. The meet is one of the oldest youth track and field competitions in the world. And most every Jamaican track and field athlete from Merlene Ottey to Usain Bolt has had to run at the event.

Jamaica Ska: Keith Lyn

Fort Clarence-- It was supposed to be your typical day at the beach in Jamaica: frying ourselves in the sun; splashing away in the water and fingers deep in the belly of some Escovitch fish, except like all things in Jamaica we were treated to some magic – we met Keith Lyn, lead vocalist for Byron Lee and the Dragonaires.