When I close my eyes

[Karl]

When I close my eyes
published: Monday | August 4, 2008


Garth Rattray When I close my eyes I'm transported back to a time when our days were balmy and our nights were cool. The beaches were pristine, the air was clean and the hills were chilly. Lush vegetation adorned most fences and thick, strong mangroves guarded our coastlines. John Crows (turkey buzzards) circled in large clusters overhead and bull frogs (toads) were always hiding in nearby bushes.

Dr Garth A. Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice, garthrattray@gmail.com; for feedback eamil: columns@gleanerjm.com.


When I close my eyes

[Islandman]

While we all tend to romanticise about Jamaica past, sometimes the brain plays tricks on us and pushes the bad memories to the back and the good ones to the front.

How about :

"When I close my eyes remember our great musicans of the 60s and 70s being ripped off by producers and businessmen in the music business. Today while much is left to be done there are a lot more options for our entertainers and they can live a decent life from thier work."

"When i close my eyes I remember looking in the banks and everyone from the manager to the tellers were light-skinned or white. Today black bank managers are the norm and many even progress much further in the corporate offices of the banks"

I could go on but you get my point.

[Karl]

While we all tend to romanticise about Jamaica past, sometimes the brain plays tricks on us and pushes the bad memories to the back and the good ones to the front.

How about :

"When I close my eyes remember our great musicans of the 60s and 70s being ripped off by producers and businessmen in the music business. Today while much is left to be done there are a lot more options for our entertainers and they can live a decent life from thier work."

"When i close my eyes I remember looking in the banks and everyone from the manager to the tellers were light-skinned or white. Today black bank managers are the norm and many even progress much further in the corporate offices of the banks"

I could go on but you get my point.

You are oooooh so right!
...but...di mur-dah-rarZ wah deh bout now???

[Islandman]

Oh definately.

The horrific crime rate and lack of steady economic growth are the two big failures in independent Jamaica. I would never try to sugar-coat that.

I still am not convinced that all is lost though.

[Hortical]

A lot of us are in denial, and we lack effective strategies to reduce crime. How many killed this year, over 900? We should expect at least another 400 dead before the end of the year.