http://web.me.com/vagabondmedia1/iWeb/Jamaicaforsale.net/Blog/Blog.html Welcome to JFS Blog Film Reviews, Screenings, Photo Gallery and Blogs on Jamaican Environment and Social Justice Issues iWeb 1.1.2 http://web.me.com/vagabondmedia1/iWeb/Jamaicaforsale.net/Blog/Blog_files/large_flag_of_jamaica.png http://web.me.com/vagabondmedia1/iWeb/Jamaicaforsale.net/Blog/Blog.html 60 Welcome to JFS Blog Film Reviews, Screenings, Photo Gallery and Blogs on Jamaican Environment and Social Justice Issues Welcome to JFS Blog Film Reviews, Screenings, Photo Gallery and Blogs on Jamaican Environment and Social Justice Issues http://web.me.com/vagabondmedia1/iWeb/Jamaicaforsale.net/Blog/A6392367-29C9-41E2-AE75-5C044B4B65CF.html http://web.me.com/vagabondmedia1/iWeb/Jamaicaforsale.net/Blog/A6392367-29C9-41E2-AE75-5C044B4B65CF.html Mon, 16 Feb 2009 07:55:23 -0500 <a href="http://web.me.com/vagabondmedia1/iWeb/Jamaicaforsale.net/Blog/A6392367-29C9-41E2-AE75-5C044B4B65CF_files/jfs%202-falmouth%20cruise%20-MPEG-4%20300Kbps.mp4"><img src="http://web.me.com/vagabondmedia1/iWeb/Jamaicaforsale.net/Blog/Images/falmouth%20%28the%20square%29%20copy.jpg" style="float:left; padding-right:10px; padding-bottom:10px; width:109px; height:79px;"/></a> A glowing Jamaica Information Service propaganda piece in the Gleaner urges everyone in Falmouth to take advantage of the upcoming bonanza that is the unfolding Falmouth Wharf Project AKA Falmouth Pier AKA Falmouth Cruise Ship Pier AKA Royal Caribbean International Takes Jamaica on A Magic Carpet R 00:02:14 A glowing Jamaica Information Service propaganda piece in the Gleaner urges everyone in Falmouth to take advantage of the upcoming bonanza that is the unfolding Falmouth Wharf Project AKA Falmouth Pier AKA Falmouth Cruise Ship Pier AKA Royal Caribbea A glowing Jamaica Information Service propaganda piece in the Gleaner urges everyone in Falmouth to take advantage of the upcoming bonanza that is the unfolding Falmouth Wharf Project AKA Falmouth Pier AKA Falmouth Cruise Ship Pier AKA Royal Caribbean International Takes Jamaica on A Magic Carpet Ride. Falmouth, grandly and affectionately known as the Historical Town of Falmouth, is to become fully transformed yet remain historical. A bit like being quite dead yet still alive, or very skinny yet quite fat. Falmouth indeed has a wharf, it has many wharfs and they are all historical. These wharfs have been allowed to fall into complete dereliction and will be demolished to build the Brand New Cruise Ship Pier. The people will be removed from the fishing beach that has been in continuous use for over one hundred years and is a place of business for fishers, vendors and restaurants. It will be dumped. The coast line will be reconfigured – underneath, the reefs broken and the coral moved for transplantation (read: likely death), the sea grasses and mangroves destroyed (read: no more fish nurseries) above, the coast will become bloated, dumped with what has been dredged to make the depths necessary for the largest cruise ships in the world (carrying over 6,000 people, almost the population of Falmouth), so that what was once sea now will be land – a docking area, customs, duty free shopping, restaurants, parking, no trespassing signs. Where then does history live in Falmouth? In history books? In Jamaica Tourist Board fantasies? In the feverish imaginations of politicians? According to the Gleaner reportage, Mayor of Falmouth, Colin Gager "urged residents of the town, especially young people, to develop an interest in the project, and to grasp every opportunity for training in order to access the job opportunities created by the development." There is apparently two hundred million US dollars worth of opportunities just waiting to be grasped by the outstretched hands of young people, more colloquially called "unemployed youth on the corner". What sort of training can these young people expect to get? The Mayor on News Talk Radio the other evening made reference to manual labour during the construction phase. Not sure how much training young people need to dig ditches, carry dirt and mix cement, but when the "construction phase" is over they will have to move to some other "construction phase" to remain employed. While making Jamaica for Sale, I spoke with a Falmouth resident who explained that given the low literacy rates in the population, these very same youths were not able to handle the application forms required to get similar labourer jobs at the (now stalled) adjacent Oyster Bay Resort development, so community dons had to resort to the threat of violence to secure said jobs. Under what methodology will jobs be secured and parceled out to residents of Falmouth for this development? It is a curious thing that when it comes to tourism development quantities of millions of US dollars are always tossed around (actually our dear Minister likes to speak in billions but he usually means Jamaican dollars, not so hard to get to billions when using our ever devaluing currency) and repeated ad nauseam with no explanation or proof for such figures. Ross Klein, one of the world's leading experts on the cruise ship industry, has a new book out (Paradise Lost at Sea) in which he states a similarly large figure, except his figure is not about benefit but cost: "Other ports are also making sizable expenditure so Jamaica’s port at Falmouth is anticipated to cost US$250 million in order to accommodate the Genesis-class vessels." (Klein, 2009:122 ) Okay let's do the math – Project costs equal $250 million, Project benefits equal $200 million. Even if one is to believe the latter fanciful figure, oops, that's $50 million on http://web.me.com/vagabondmedia1/iWeb/Jamaicaforsale.net/Blog/4952CF6B-3CAC-4E87-A662-4E7793C4240A.html http://web.me.com/vagabondmedia1/iWeb/Jamaicaforsale.net/Blog/4952CF6B-3CAC-4E87-A662-4E7793C4240A.html Mon, 22 Dec 2008 07:09:48 -0500 <a href="http://web.me.com/vagabondmedia1/iWeb/Jamaicaforsale.net/Blog/4952CF6B-3CAC-4E87-A662-4E7793C4240A_files/droppedImage.jpg"><img src="http://web.me.com/vagabondmedia1/iWeb/Jamaicaforsale.net/Blog/Images/droppedImage.jpg" style="float:left; padding-right:10px; padding-bottom:10px; width:109px; height:79px;"/></a>The Rio Grande valley in Jamaica is awash with body parts, strewn produce, heartbreak and unquenchable pain. Friday night a truck loaded with vendors and produce heading from Portland communities Mill Bank, Comfort Castle, and Ginger House to Coronation Market in Kingston went over the ravine and pl http://web.me.com/vagabondmedia1/iWeb/Jamaicaforsale.net/Blog/3C48F688-5347-4745-B21A-6BBF2AACD66C.html http://web.me.com/vagabondmedia1/iWeb/Jamaicaforsale.net/Blog/3C48F688-5347-4745-B21A-6BBF2AACD66C.html Thu, 23 Oct 2008 23:00:00 -0500 "Jamaica For Sale" Disturbing Video on Island’s Tourism Industry The Jamaica Environmental Trust (JET) has launched “Jamaica for Sale”, a 92 minute video documentary highlighting disturbing issues behind the island's normally rosy sun, sea and sand tourism image. "We want to raise hard questions a http://web.me.com/vagabondmedia1/iWeb/Jamaicaforsale.net/Blog/B6C700D3-F0EC-435B-B36A-8D17F8F68EF9.html http://web.me.com/vagabondmedia1/iWeb/Jamaicaforsale.net/Blog/B6C700D3-F0EC-435B-B36A-8D17F8F68EF9.html Wed, 29 Oct 2008 23:00:00 -0500 Jamaica for Sale The economic, cultural and environmental problems facing a country heavily dependent on tourism are probed in "Jamaica for Sale." An angry condemnation of the massive upsurge in resort development currently under way on the Caribbean island, docu by academic helmer Esther Figueroa http://web.me.com/vagabondmedia1/iWeb/Jamaicaforsale.net/Blog/950EE37D-141E-4080-82F5-88BB6DF9AE28.html http://web.me.com/vagabondmedia1/iWeb/Jamaicaforsale.net/Blog/950EE37D-141E-4080-82F5-88BB6DF9AE28.html Sun, 16 Nov 2008 20:27:16 -0500 <a href="http://web.me.com/vagabondmedia1/iWeb/Jamaicaforsale.net/Blog/950EE37D-141E-4080-82F5-88BB6DF9AE28_files/cPear%20Tree%20River%202.no%20tress%20copy.jpg"><img src="http://web.me.com/vagabondmedia1/iWeb/Jamaicaforsale.net/Blog/Images/cPear%20Tree%20River%202.no%20tress%20copy.jpg" style="float:left; padding-right:10px; padding-bottom:10px; width:109px; height:79px;"/></a>In 1989, before the General Elections of that year, the PNP Opposition accused Edward Seaga’s government of having a “Going out of business sale” of Jamaica’s assets, privatising left right and centre. That sale was as nothing compared to the present ‘madness’ sale, initiated by P. J. Patterson a