CNN voted Jamaica Third Coolest Country

 In case you missed it, CNN voted Jamaica the third coolest country last night.  Initially, this was quite impressive.  Except in the banter to happen between Anderson Cooper and Isha Sesay, towards the end of Anderson Cooper 360, Cooper probed Sesay to reveal that the poll was taken by a few journalists from the CNN office in Atlanta.  There was no world-wide poll of citizens to discover which country is the coolest.  

When Sesay asked Cooper to guest the coolest country he was correct in saying Brazil.  Truly, I don’t think most people would deny Brazil ultimate cool status: with a stable government, strong economic might, beautiful women/men, samba and sports -- they deserve to be number one.  Singapore was voted the second coolest. I understand why they were voted second, though don't agree.  But it’s an office poll – the guys who voted believe it should be the runner-up in cool countries.    

Jamaica being third isn’t bad though.   They’re over 190 countries in the world so for likkle Jamdown to have intoxicated the office guys so they voted Jamaica number three isn’t bad at all. 

I don’t know many Jamaicans who say cool runnings, even though the film is shown on television continuously in New York.  But I have heard Jamaicans use 'cool' to mean: hello, calm down and feeling alright.  Then I’ve heard: cool it nuh and cool brethren.  Which all follow Irie for the absolute cool.  So ‘cool’ is a part of the language and temperament of Jamaicans.  No fuss, no hurry, soon come, everything cool.  Truly the beauty of the island and people still live on.


Here's the CNN story.

-- Connie Aitcheson