Air Travel is gone to the dogs

So why should I be losing sleep over the fact that air travel is nothing like it used to be? I don't know why, but I know I just am.

It seems everyone now takes for granted that you pay for checking your bags onto the airplane and that all you'll get in flight on a plane like Delta flying to as far away a place as Florida from NY for close to or a little over 3 hours...is peanuts OR pretzels OR cookies with soda is just beyond me.

I am so jonesing for Air Jamaica right now...for the next time I fly at any rate, which probably means I'll have to put up with all the taking for granted that they there sometimes have a tendency to do....

BUT at least they try to show you a movie in flight! At least they try to serve you something that is something to look forward to, like a hot meal!

You at least feel like the flight experience is going to be a good one and something to say you did. It seems the American Travel industry experience is so racked with financial problems and other races to the bottom of the customer experience that they don't realize the premium people from elsewhere put on actually getting a chance to go up in an airplane...

These days it seems the people behind engineering the customer service experience believe it should be nothing more than a bus ride. You know like leaving the city and going across to New Jersey and in fact some plane rides aren't even like the Greyhound experience but are more like catching the Chinatown bus to DC or to Boston. Just ordinary.

As if anyone cared, I protest.

As far as I am concerned, all that energy, all that excitement put into preparing oneself for the trip is not to be treated lightly...but alas in the race to the bottom, it seems to be no less than a bus ride in the sky.

Liberating the Word...an ode to Pinson

A friend of mine sent me this news story from Jamaica....I follow it with my response...a rather colorful one....in the spirit and style of the original word liberator from Jamaica....Peter Tosh and another brother, less celebrated, but no less passionate in the use of the Jamaican Language...Pinson (may God rest both their souls).

Danville Walker’s citizenship to be discussed at ECJ meeting

Thursday, 03 January 2008

The issue of Director of Elections Danville Walker's dual citizenship is among several matters down for discussion at the first meeting of the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ). The Commission's Chairman, Professor Errol Miller, says members will undertake a careful examination of the recent developments involving Mr. Walker. However Professor Miller says the issue is not being treated as a crisis. "We have learnt of the matter in the same way everybody has learnt of it and the matter will be taken up at the meeting on the 16th January. We will address it, look at it and examine it, we see no emergency in the matter we will deal with it in a careful manner and we will look at all the implications and so on but we are not going to deal with it on a crisis basis that's for sure," said Prodessor Miller. Last week lawyers representing People's National Party (PNP) candidate for Western Portland, Abe Dabdoub, questioned Mr. Walker's eligibility for the post. Lead attorney Gayle Nelson argued that under Section Three of the Electoral Commission (Interim) Act of 2006, Mr. Walker should be disqualified from holding the post of Director of Elections. The Section notes that a person will be disqualified from holding the post if that person is not a citizen of Jamaica, not resident in Jamaica, or by his own act, has acknowledged allegiance, obedience or adherence to a foreign power or state. The matter was heard during the election petition brought by Mr. Dabdoub against Member of Parliament Daryl Vaz. In the meantime, United States based attorney-at-law George Cromarko, who represents parliamentarian Daryl Vaz, is now giving testimony in the Supreme Court. This as the High Court continues its hearing into the election petition filed by defeated PNP candidate, Abe Dabdoub. Mr. Dabdoub wants the court to remove Mr. Vaz, who represents West Portland in the House of Parliament, claiming he holds dual citizenship. Jamaica's constitution bars persons who pledge allegiance to another country from holding political office. Last month lawyers representing Mr. Dabdoub submitted documents which they claim show that Mr. Vaz had been travelling as an American citizen even after he was sworn in as a government minister.

MY TAKE ON THE WHOLE THING!!!!


My professor from Trinidad, Trevor something another....yes Farrell, had a thing to say that has stuck with me all these years....JOKE IS JOKE, BUT DAMN JOKE IS NO JOKE!!!!

This is a damn joke.....but lest you think I mekking sport (runnin Joke as my guyanese friends say) before we go any further...let me say if the colorful words of our lexicon from Jamaica offend yu, stop read right hereso......

Is a friendly WARNING.....Peter Tosh style!!!!

As I read this story about Danville Walker's citizenship being questioned now ......I am feeling personally condomized (used and about to be discarded) by the land of my birth and the polyfreaking tricksters that run the society.

Now look here somebody has to tell the next freaking BUMBO (is a toy the chinese mekking now for the toddlers..so there...if mi add on Claat to it now then yu can have a problem....)

But seriously somebody need to say to dem people deh whe come up from Jamaica all the BUMBOCLAAT time and a try tell I an I fi become Citizen of the UNITED SNAKES of America, dat dis likkle bait an BLOOD (easy Ian) .....hu mh....easy Ian....decent people a read this.....easy yute......

somebody need to tell dem people yah seh dis bait and switch business naw cut it because some LOSER dude....who switch party like him change him draws seh it not going to work and a cite a constitution fi legitimize that. Well is time then fi di badwud constitution get changed!!!!!

How do you now question the allegiance of man who has run Jamaica's electoral commission for the last how many elections/years, a breds who if memory serves me right was committed to taking bullet fi god and country, her majesty, her heirs and succcessors (as an officer the JDF) and now yu come to ask if dis man have a right to serve at the EOJ as its Director...worse yu a seh After The Fact....this man DON'T HAVE THE RIGHT TO SERVE....jus because BUMBO (easy yute).....CLAAT (mi seh fi easy yute!) what!!!!! him come to Merrimacka come tun Citizen.....

Den whe di BUMBO CLAAT (Puppa Jeezas yute yu nuh hear mi seh yu fi easy), eh, whe dat a seh to me.....

.....me, who nuh mek the enlightened leap yet fi tun MERCAN, mus hol my corners....live yah, work yah...and God forbid DEAD YAH!.....without the priveleges of savoring all that AMERICA has to offer (IOWA caucus night, being tonight...yu know exactly what me talking bout....voting for the president of the free world among other FEDERAL THINGS).....jus because wha....one day mi gooda go back a Jamaica when mi still have some use to misself and mi country only fi a power-hungry-waan-seal-up-the-kingdom-stay-deh-never-leff-deh-BUMBO-HOLE come tell me "NO!!!! My services aren't needed!!!!"

Who can tell seh mi RED......

This I tell you is a decent tribute to my now deceased neighbor from the hills of St. Mary....God Rest Him Soul....PINSON....mi nuh know nuh man coulda cuss badwud like dat breds when people did mek him red.....

And now to rahtid mi know why dem fire me ass from Super-don't-cuss-no-badwud-here-CLUBS (smile)....still nuh learn nuh lesson eh! What a thing?!

But no....dis is one me feel the Diasporic community shoulda raise BACKSIDE about.

Me leaving Jamaica physically is in no way my being complicitous in my denial of any priveleges to serve and be a vibrant contributor to my country's professional and leadership cadre....a dat me seh, awhoa! Somebody better fix dis quick.

Oh by the way....Just in case you are holding your head or shaking it, overwhelmed by the use of the COLORS...missing entirely the point of what I am arguing...know this, you have to go beyond words to the power they come with. As Peter said in his seminal work of resistance of the status quo and the powers that were and still are in Jamaica, "Oh Bumbo Klaat" (Wanted Dread or Alive Album), the word was used by him on the advice of someone who said the word would remove the effect and spell of the demons in his midst (you've probably had those dreams too where you can't move, you scream but nothing comes out of your mouth)....he used it...and the duppies/demons left him alone. THE WORD IS A LIBERATOR! (if even the police in Jamaica will break your skull for it).

Connections my new show on WBAI FM 99.5 in NYC

First of all let me just extend a warm seasons greetings to you.

Let me next tell you that this is very new for me but I am excited as all get out about it.....WOW! I've got my blog started. If you thought I was talkative before.....Watch me now!!!!(Smile).

I am smiling, but really though I am happy to be joining the blogging community, having for a gazillion reasons seen it as something that was just something I couldn't do for one reason or another...too technical, too time consuming...too something or the other...long and short of it...before now it didn't happen.

So in the time I have to write this and the time you have to read it, let me just say....Wo-wow!!! We deh pon street again (combining Cham and Bob Marley lyrics/sayings right there). We are on radio again, and this time in our own right. Producing is something I enjoy doing and to some extent feel I am natural at. I consider it an honor to be working for the past 3 years with my very good friend and mentor, Habte Selassie, on "Labbrish", on listener sponsored non commercial radio station WBAI FM 99.5 in NY, but I tell you, nothing compares to being on air in your own right....nothing (in radioland that is)!

So my new gig is called, "Connections", a new old show appearing on alternate Mondays on WBAI FM 99.5 3-6am.

New in that it is appearing on WBAI FM 99.5 for the first time beginning earlier this year on Nov. 12, 2007 (My sister Samantha aka Lisa's earthday/birthday).

Old in that it had a life elsewhere, on Brooklyn College Radio WBCR, 1090 AM (reach with terrestrial signal was like round the block but with the internet there was no telling who heard me and where they did so)

Now Connections sees me programming for 3 hours on a station that is a legendary home for members of the progressive community in the United States and the World for that matter, but most particularly so for those living in the US north east. BAI as the station is affectionately know has a reach, powered by 50,000 watts, emanating from the Empire State Building, that takes it's signal into Connecticut, New Jersey and some parts of Pennsylvania in addition to all of NYC and its environs. With its world recognized website www.wbai.org, again who hears us and where they do, is limited only by their access to the world wide web.

So we making Connections.

They say imitation is greatest form of flattery...well Diane Rehm of the Diane Rehm Show airing on National Public Radio (NPR), take a bow. Connections as a concept is 3 hours of radio programming where every hour stands on its own from the other, pretty much like Ms. Rehm's nationally syndicated 2 hour production.

The 1st Hour...The Musical Connection, is from 3-4am. During that time we play some of the most uplifting music that has moved us over the course of the week leading up to the show, easily we share with you how the spirit has moved our head musically.

The 2nd Hour.....The Extended Play, is from 4-5am. This part of the program takes the listener in deep. We go long on an interview or series of interviews on a topic that moves us. In our initial program it was a speech presented by former Prime Minister of Jamaica, P.J. Patterson...bottomline is, we take time to share something we consider special and go long with it...necessary especially in a time where everything seems packaged for a soundbite and nobody seems to have time to really express themselves or the medium to do so in/on.

The 3rd Hour.....The Here and There, is from 5-6am. In this the last hour of the connecting experience we revive works we used to do as part of the Caribbean Round Up in Wake Up Call (a program segment on WBAI which ran from Sept 2002 to June 2005), we take into consideration the issues, news and views of the Caribbean Diaspora, HERE (in the metropoles of the world) for the first half hour. In the second half of the hour, we go THERE, where the news and views and issues of significance affecting people in the Caribbean region are looked at and explored.

So there you have it.

In my next word ..I'll speak more about what we've been able to do in the 4 programs so far (beginning Nov. 12, airing again Nov 26, Dec. 10, Dec 24).

Stay tuned.